I just finished an excellent book, “Holy Shit: Managing Manure to Save Mankind” by contrary farmer Gene Logsdon. In this delightful book, Logsdon digs deep into the science, history, psychology and cultural of one of farming’s most vital elements: manure. With chapter titles like “The Knitty-Greitty of the Shitty,” “Meditations on a Meadow Muffin,” and “The Anti-Bowel movement,” he gives us the shit on the shit, while simultaneously waxing poetical about “the divine materials in manure.”
Logsdon catalogues every type of manure, from conventional cow down to bat guano, weighing the benefits of each in turn. He goes into the mechanics and logistics of barn and stall design, bedding, manure storage, removal, aging and spreading, with multiple diagrams and illustrations—did you know that there are at least five different types of pitchforks, one for each specific job? I appreciate the straightforward way he presents all this information, laying it out, acknowledging that certain methods are great in theory buy awkward or just plain stupid to attempt in real life. He manages to condense hundreds of years of farming experience into a slim, highly readable book of 195 pages.
Oh, and did I mention Logsdon is funny? Whether he is telling a story about the time a friend of his turned on his manure spreader with a cop car behind him or saying things like “the specter of 73 million cats perched on toilet bowls across the nation causes me to shudder,” Gene Logsdon is an uproariously hilarious man. Even if you are not a farmer you should read this book, just for shits and giggles.
Logsdon also probes into our cultural phobia of excrement, especially our revulsion at our own. We waste absurd amounts of clean water and money to dispose of our waste, enough to make me long for a composting toilet of my own. He frankly addresses the problems that this phobia is causing, and while he does not see a solution that is possible on a large scale, he at least begins the conversation and presents several small scale options.
I highly recommend this book, especially for any farmers or gardeners. Logsdon also has an excellent blog, where he puts his acerbic wit to work telling stories and sharing his farming knowledge. You can find it here.
I read a lot, and I usually have so many books going at once that if I don’t organize myself in some way I have a hard time getting through them all. One of my methods is to keep a book at the table and read it with every meal. Well, “Holy Shit” has been my table book for these past three weeks, and it only just occurred to me today that a book about crap may not be the breakfast companion of your average 22-year-old. But I think I can live with that.
Can't run to the bathroom fast enough to read Logsdon's book. 'hope this rippin' yarn leaves no tears in my eyes or tears in my britches.
ReplyDeleteI hope that the book poops on the concept that a safely functioning compost environment can't be created for permaculurists. There's ample non-human detritis to fertilise our gardens, but there's a lot that we can use our own for. I'm wondering if he has a simple inexpensive solution, ...er... fix to the problem of the under-aerated stationary compost pile in most well-intentioned composters' backyards.
Thanks for a great review !
Your breakfast reading reminds me of the first time I read James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small ... which happened to coincide with the first time I had a Reuben sandwich. The passage was about the difficult birth of a calf and the vet's arm all the way up inside a cow. The sandwich, eaten at a wooden table in the Rathskeller of the Memorial Union, was delicious. I may never read James Herriot again, but I'll always think of him when I eat a Reuben sandwich!
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