soil book and corn question plus

[Permacltur at aol.com]

A solution may be to establish a green manure crop such as rye and once it is 
going mob stock chickens.   They will eat the rye and scratch for the worms.  
Chickens and ducks also quickly learn to follow cultivation equipment to get 
exposed invertebrates, etc.   They can be encourages to scrates in freshly 
cultivated land for a week or so by broadcasting scratch such as cracked 
corn.  (The trouble with cracked corn may be that it also attracts crows to 
the field which will look for the seed corn when it is planted.)

These measures probably are not as effective a crop rotation, mentioned 
earlier, though they can be done in conjunction with crop rotation for even 
greater effectiveness.  A legume such as beans is good to plant following 
corn.  Since beans mature quickly, there is room at the beginning and end of 
the season for using poultry as part of the pest control.  If the winter 
season is not too hot, fava beans can be grown then.  The nitrogen fixed will 
also help the maize.  Moreover, beans really like to follow chickens in an 
area.  

Another benefit is that the chickens consume weeds and many kinds of weed 
seeds, reducing the need for cultivation.  Less cultivation is more profit.

Dan Hemnenway
Barking Frogs Permaculture Center