As Mr. Stoll so eloquently points out, the history of soil coincides with the story of manure. All scatology aside, spreading manure on cultivated land completes a cycle of nature, returning nutrients to the soil and preserving productivity. Early American farmers, for the most part, completely disregarded this fact. Since land was to be had in abundance, they exhausted the land and moved on.

This was a near universal tendency in the ante-bellum South. Emigration from old states to new created a real problem in states like Virginia and South Carolina. No less a problem was it in New England and the North East. Yet there was a movement afoot that worked to put manure to work on the farm and return productivity to the wasted lands. This movement was called "improvement".

It's adherents were diverse and included such icons as George Washington and Horace Greely. "Improvement" could almost be described as a cultural movement that loved home and permanence and valued thrift and conservation. Mr. Stoll does a great job describing the movement, its antecedents as well as its effects.

"Larding the Lean Earth" concentrates on two areas of the Eastern Seaboard, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. We are shown the system in engaging detail, how forest, fallow, pasturage, livestock, manure and intensive labor all play a crucial roll. The descriptions in the first chapter make the average reader long for their own plot of land to "improve".

Slavery, industry, agricultural journals and diplomacy all affected the movement. Mr. Stoll goes into some detail on how land use and slavery resulted in the failure of the improvement movement in the South. Even so, his final explanation was somewhat hazy. Why did the improvement movement work in the North, but fail so utterly in the South? He says that slavery was not completely anathema to improvement. Yet, the peculiar institution was one of the primary differences between North and South. The fact is that slavery led to the plantation system, where large tracts were farmed. Because such vast labor was available to the overseer or the planter, he was ABLE to farm more land than he could possibly manure with the animals available.

Mr. Stoll's book is vastly entertaining and although the subject of soils is highly charged with political implications, he refrains from preaching until the last few pages of the book.

Two major strands proceeded from "improvement". First was Teddy Roosevelt's "conservationism". Second, was "progressive" farming techniques, (modern organic-gardening also has its roots in "improvement"). Mr. Stoll argues that conservation became an effort to take land away from individuals to preserve it from the ravages of exploitation. Certainly the farming and mining techniques of the 19th century and much of the 20th century left much to be desired. Soil exhaustion and soil erosion were very common in much of the settled country. Roosevelt wanted to preserve some of the bounty in the pristine lands remaining for future generations. Yet the concept was broader and called for the intelligent use of the land by lumbering interests, ranchers and miners.

On the other hand, progressive farming was the application of machines and chemicals to enhance the productivity of the land, even while it did not do much to enhance the quality of soils. Mr. Stoll decries this development, seeing it as harmful to the biosphere, destroying bio-diversity and hastening erosion. As an historian, he mentions that any epoch in history is merely a phase leading to the next phase. Yet, somehow, he seems to see progressive farming as a permanent evil. He ignores techniques that larger farms have been developing over time to rectify the problems that still remain in farming, such as dependence on harmful chemicals as well as his own pet subject, soils. Contour farming, terracing, and injecting processed manure into the soil are all becoming common practices. He also seems unaware of the fact that land has been consistently going out of production for other pastoral uses in the United States because yields have been so high.

He admits that modern farming has allowed us to feed a burgeoning world population. He also admits that should the pipeline of plenty be interrupted that millions, even billions, would die. This creates a quandary. Mr. Stoll pines for the days when farms introduced nitrogen into their soils naturally by crop rotation. He fondly writes of the improvement farmers who kept livestock and pasturage and kept the entire cycle of soil to plants to animals to manure to soil in one local place.

Such dreams are not that different than the dreams of the city dwellers he gently chides for wanting an idyllic countryside. He advocates a more rural existence for the mass of humanity, an existence much like that of the modern Amish people of central Ohio. There is no question that such a life is appealing to the mind of us brooding intellectuals and arm chair farmers. No question that such a utopian vision is grand and would, no doubt, be superior to the life most lead in urban areas. No question of our inability to impose it upon a free society.

One can agree or disagree with Mr. Stoll's conclusions. What cannot be denied is that this is a well-researched, well-written and entertaining history with implications for anyone interested in land use, ecology, economics, farming or American culture.

Highly Recommended.

This book can be purchased at Amazon.com.