(introduction...)

This section of the manual presents information needed to build and maintain soil fertility. The professional market gardener or farmer needs to understand his soil, and be able to properly access or estimate the physical properties and fertility of his soil. Good soil fertility is the foundation for producing increased yields through intensive market gardening.

Soil fertility is the life blood of the world's agriculture. Where the soil's fertility has been depleted entire civilizations have crumbled. It is truly the duty of the farmer to preserve the fertility of his soil: without it he and his nation cannot produce and survive!

To learn how to manage his soil's fertility the farmer must first understand how nature has produced and maintained the soil's fertility for hundreds of years.