In Pay Dirt, J.I. Rodale tells us what is wrong, and why, from his own experience, and that of a great many of the world's leading farm experts, horticulturists and soil biologists ¿ and how organic farming and gardening change the picture. Compost, you may not know, has displaced, in the last few years, the use of chemical fertilizer, entirely on many of the largest tea plantations in India and Ceylon, on the great ranches of South Africa, and in the large coffee plantations of Central America, as well as on hundreds of thousands of small farms and gardens in many countries of the world.Pay Dirt is the first book devoted completely to this way of farming and gardening to be written and published in the United States.

A classic is back in print! One of the favorite books of 1970s back-to-the-landers, The Toilet Papers is an informative, inspiring, and irreverent look at how people have dealt with their wastes through the centuries. In a historical survey, Van der Ryn provides the basic facts concerning human wastes, and describes safe designs for toilets that reduce water consumption and avert the necessity for expensive and unreliable treatment systems. The Toilet Papers provides do-it-yourself plans for a basic compost privy and a variety of graywater systems.