Inspiring Early Biochar Accounts from 19th Century America and Europe

I don't spend a lot of time on Permies (or anywhere else for that matter as I'm too busy with the homestead and projects, but there are a lot of good discussions and like minded people here, and I wanted to post this information. I'm always trying to get this research out there because I have found it very inspiring and motivating personally and think more of us should be putting in biochar experiments to assess it's relevance to our various situations. I figured this was the place that I could find a lot of people that would think this stuff is as cool as I think it is and take it forward. In this video I read some of the best accounts I've found of farmers using charcoal to amend soil in the 19th century and also observing charcoal burning sites, who's fertility persisted for at least decades. This is the stuff that really motivated me to start making lots of charcoal and thinking bigger. This kind of anecdotal evidence holds a lot of weight for me, especially since it is the long game that is really the promise of biochar and the observation of charcoal pit bottoms spans decades. Anything we can do that will actually have a truly lasting permanent effect on soil health/fertility is like the holy grail, and in my almost 30 years of gardening experience, most of what we do in terms of soil improvement is very temporary.

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the original post with all of the accounts is here: http://skillcult.com/blog/2012/05/18/some-citations-on-biochar-in-europe-and-america-in-the-19th-century

Well researched. Thank you for sharing your time and effort. Much appreciated.