Guest guest Posted June 28, 2001 Report Share Posted June 28, 2001 Dear Mark, PAMHO. AGTSP. I wanted to thank you for your fascintating texts about agroforestry and ox power. I thought I would include this paragraph that Balabhadra dictated for another letter. "Many years ago in Mayapur when Kanva prabhu was in charge of all the gardens. He was trying to introduce a multipurpose tree to the area and everyone laughed at him. I can't remember the name of the tree, but I can find out for you. It was a very fast growing tree which meant that it would supply firewood. The leaves were high in protein and could be fed to the cows and the tree was also classified as a legume which is a nitrogen fixing plant. He did plant quite a few and when I was on the roof of the guest house with him one day he was telling me this story. There was a number of these trees around the backside of the guest house and he pointed and said just see the local villagers now they are coming to take seed pods to grow their own because the trees themselves had proven beneficial. We had a good laugh." The use of this tree in your plan might work? Your servant, Chayadevi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 1, 2001 Report Share Posted July 1, 2001 > THe tree is lucaena (In India known as subabul) It is indeed a good tree, but is meant for the semi arid tropics and below 500 meters. My land in Mauritius is at about 550 meters, and leuceana was very slow growing there. It is also suseptible to psyllids, and the trees had heavy infections which I controlled with neem. In Mauritius the University has developed psyllid resistant varieties. It grows very well at lower altitudes. YS Samba das Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 4, 2001 Report Share Posted July 4, 2001 There was a number of > >these trees around the backside of the guest house and he pointed and said > >just see the local villagers now they are coming to take seed pods to grow > >their own because the trees themselves had proven beneficial. We had a good > >laugh." > > > >The use of this tree in your plan might work? > I was thinking of doing this when I was in Vrindavan. There is no grass in >Vrindavan growing naturally, due to the dry climate, and consequently the >cows just scavenge the rubbish dumps, ingesting huge numbers of plastic >bags, which cause them slow death. Since I am also coming from a dry >climate, Australia, I knew of tree lucerne, which keeps Australian cows >alive during the massive droughts we have. >So I was e-mailing all the agricultural institutes in India, seeing if they >knew of a local variety, as I didn't know if they could be imported from >Australia. They did mention some types, but no one said whether such types >could grow in drought conditions, or where I could purchase some as an >experiment for the goshalla, despite my repeated requests. > >If a suitable legume tree could be found, that would survive drought, not >only would the cows not have to scavenge dangerous rubbish, but the local >farmers might be persuaded to not sell their cows for slaughter, since they >would cost them nothing to maintain, and their dung is worth something isn't >it? > >your servant Niscala. > > There was a number of > >these trees around the backside of the guest house and he pointed and said > >just see the local villagers now they are coming to take seed pods to grow > >their own because the trees themselves had proven beneficial. We had a good > >laugh." > > > >The use of this tree in your plan might work? > >I was thinking of doing this when I was in Vrindavan. There is no grass in >Vrindavan growing naturally, due to the dry climate, and consequently the >cows just scavenge the rubbish dumps, ingesting huge numbers of plastic >bags, which cause them slow death. Since I am also coming from a dry >climate, Australia, I knew of tree lucerne, which keeps Australian cows >alive during the massive droughts we have. >So I was e-mailing all the agricultural institutes in India, seeing if they >knew of a local variety, as I didn't know if they could be imported from >Australia. They did mention some types, but no one said whether such types >could grow in drought conditions, or where I could purchase some as an >experiment for the goshalla, despite my repeated requests. So then it came >time for me to leave Vrindavan. > >If a suitable legume tree could be found, that would survive drought, not >only would the cows not have to scavenge dangerous rubbish, but the local >farmers might be persuaded to not sell their cows for slaughter, since they >would cost them nothing to maintain, and their dung is worth something isn't >it? > >your servant Niscala. > > > > > > _______________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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