Permanent Agriculture: A Little Bit of History

The term, permaculture, was coined in 1978 by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in Australia, following years of research, experimentation, and writing.  In its origin – before being associated with permanent culture – the term permaculture was meant to represent the idea of permanent agriculture, a concept that dates back to 1910.  At that time, Cyril Hopkins and Franklin King wrote four books on the subject, which was quite significant, as it was the first time in the United States that a type of agriculture was qualified and differentiated from the conventional agriculture supported by the USDA.  Although King was author to only one of the three books, Farmers of Forty Centuries or Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan, and died before its completion, its popularity superseded all three of Hopkins’ publications.  In the book, King describes a form of permanent agriculture, based on labour-intensive agricultural production, the use of local materials, and the recycling of all waste products in order to sustain yields and soil fertility over centuries. In King’s introduction to agricultural production in the three countries, he surmises: 

Almost every foot of land is made to contribute material for food, fuel or fabric. Everything which can be made edible serves as food for man or domestic animals. Whatever cannot be eaten or worn is used for fuel. The wastes of the body, of fuel and of fabric worn beyond other use are taken back to the field; before doing so they are housed against waste from weather, compounded with intelligence and forethought and patiently labored with through one, three or even six months, to bring them into the most efficient form to serve as manure for the soil or as feed for the crop. 

Since its first publication in 1911, there have been, at minimum, 26 English impressions or editions of Farmers of Forty Centuries and King’s work had great influence in the creation of   what is now called organic agriculture.

In 1929, Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture by J. Russell Smith was published, proposing the planting of tree crops for the United States on hillsides, steep slopes, rocky areas, and dry regions.  Smith’s observations in China, Syria, Greece, Italy, Guatemala, and the United States lead him to warn against the inevitable one-way trajectory of plow agriculture: “Forest – field – plow – desert”.  His book, Tree Crops, was a plea for investment into the necessary research and experimentation it would take before the government would be ready to come on board.  He was looking for someone to literally buy into his vision of a permanent agriculture:   

We will have small plowed fields on the level hilltops.  The level valleys will also be plowed, but the slopes will be productive through crops trees and protected by them – a permanent form of agriculture.”  Smith also suggested a “two-story agriculture” incorporating both annual crops and trees, such as the intercropping now found in agroforestry.  He thought of this as another form of permanent agriculture.  Yet, Smith’s work is a singular example of the use of the term permanent agriculture since the work of King and Hopkins.  Until the work of Bill Mollison and David Holmgren was published in 1978, there is little mention of permanent agriculture as a sustainable form of agriculture.

Bill Mollison presents three forms of permanent agriculture in Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual.  The first refers to King’s seminal work in China, Japan, and Korea, describing this form of permanent agriculture, “feudal permanence” in that people were in service to the state or a landlord, relentlessly working the land, without escape.  Mollison felt that this form of agriculture was unsustainable, due to the probability of revolt or famine.  The second form is permanent pasture, such as the prairies, pampas, or western farms – large landscapes of few people and often a single animal species.  This “baronial permanence” is considered by Mollison to be the least productive use of land, and once mechanized ruin the soil and landscape.  Mollison is probably most in line with the vision set out by Smith in 1929, as he describes the third form of permanent agriculture – forests – as a “communal permanence”.  A permanence that “requires generations of care and knowledge, and hence a tribal or communal reverence only found in stable communities”.  It is the desire for communal permanence, found in forests, that permaculture was born out of.           

Hopkins, C.G.  (1910).  Soil fertility and permanent agriculture.  Ginn and Company, Boston.

Hopkins, C.G.  (1911).  The story of the soil: From the basis of absolute science and real science. The Gorham Press, Boston.

Hopkins, C.G.  (1913).  The farm that won’t wear out.  Cyril G. Hopkins, Champaign.

King, F. H.  (1911).  Farmers of forty centuries, or permanent agriculture in Korea, China, and Japan.  Mrs. F. H. King, Madison

Mollison, B.  (1992).  Permaculture: A designers manual.  Tyalgum, Australia: Tagari Publishing. 

Smith, J. R.  (1929).  Tree crops: A permanent agriculture.  Rahway, NJ: Quinn & Boden Company, Inc.