I like reading about nutrition and health / exercise and stumbled across this book. https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html Published in 1939 its by Weston Price a dentist. He traveled to isolated and/or tribal communities and compared dental / facial structures of traditional diets vs introduced fare (what he calls "foods of commerce" - wheat, sugar etc). Great read, permie goldmine if you want to know about some traditional farming techniques (might have to look into them further). Heres one... (isolated communities in the outer Hebridies, this is referring to the smoke houses, chimnieless thached roof houses When I inquired regarding this I was told by one of the clearthinking residents that this thatch collected something from the smoke which when put in the soil doubled the growth of plants and yield of grain. He showed me with keen interest two patches of grain which seemed to demonstrate the soundness of his contention. Seems like they lit fires in side, the smoke collected in the roofs thatch, then it was layed out on the field which improved growth. perhaps these served as carbon collectors in all the soot which then added heaps of soil carbon and thus life to the field they wanted to improve yields on. FIG. 8. From left to right. These pots of soil growing oats contained decreasing amounts of smoke-thatch. Only the first produced mature grain. This is in accord with the belief and practice of the native Gaelics.
A pity that our scientific arrogance has often meant that we have not listened to "primitive" peoples (The Terra preta story is another instance) Soot is an important source of potassium https://www.ehow.com/how_6747751_compost-soot.html
oh yeah the language in this book is very, shall we say, pre the invention of political correctness. none the less, take it for what it is, a great broad study of the effects of diet on health.
Cool - I had no idea this was available online! I've read bits of a friend's hard copy. As a former scientist who used to appraise scientific literature all day, I have to say that Weston Price's methods are very good. He's really the grandfather of the longitudinal cohort study. And Moe, you are so right - not a shred of political correctness to be seen! Danielle