Lecture by Alan Chadwick in Saratoga, May 16, 1972

Lecture 3, Part 3.2

An Introduction to Alan Chadwick's Lectures and a Glossary of Terms

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Contents of this Segment:

Interrelation between man and nature; Life into death into life; Green matter of weeds is essential for making organic compost; Manures are mere processed weeds; Grass vs. mixed pasture for cattle; Conspiracy by chemical manufacturers to promote misinformation; Origin plants higher in vitality than cultured plants; Nothing is wasted in nature.

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Villa Montalvo Lecture Series

Saratoga, California, 1972, Lecture 3,

Fertilization, Part 2

So this is what I am leading up to about weeds, because this is exactly what has happened. He has said: “Weeds, poof, wipe them out! We don’t want anything to do with them.” It’s madness. He needs everything to do with them. And they, of course, need everything to do with him. And this is a very beautiful aspect of the matter, which we are also growing to overlook. Not is it, that we just need and want gardens, and growing and beautiful orchards, and arable lands full of cereals, and cattle and livestock, but that the whole world of nature and creation needs man, as a part of it. He belongs with it, in it. It does not belong to him. I slightly emphasize that because of what has happened about this weed business, and the absurdity of the treatment of it.

Soil is all life matter into death into life. And we will note, as we discuss fertilizations and fertilizers, that green matter, all green growing matter is practically the total value of making fertilized, fertile soil. Therefore the importance of the growing of weeds cannot possibly be overrated. Everybody who has a garden or a farm needs to grow literally half of that area in wild growth to make organic compost.

Before I deal with the fertilizers and we discuss them, let us also just look at another matter which has got somewhat out of view, in fact almost forgotten, and that is manures. We should be talking about different manures and their values and their uses. Let us just assess weeds, or plants, whatever you like. Grass is a plant, and a weed is a plant, and it makes fertile soil. And then somebody says: “Oh yes, I see. Well what about manures? Ah, now here’s a totally different thing. Manures, yes, of course. Yes, um...” Well it’s the same thing. It’s just nonsense to pretend it’s otherwise.

It’s all weeds again. It’s weeds going through an animal’s machine, and coming out as compost. It’s only herbage mixed with a bit of juice. And, indeed, of course, as you realize, it’s one of nature’s ways. Just like a strawberry induces a bird to swallow it in order to place it into the compost of the bird, in order that the seed should germinate in a beautiful seed bed. So is a cow attracted to clover and other herbs in the same way. And of course, this goes round and round inside and is degurgitated and swallowed again and turned into milk. And away comes the compost with all the seeds in, which have a beautiful bed in which to germinate. It’s all part of a huge law of procedure. So, we must not think, when we discuss manures a little later, that we are talking about something different to weeds, because we’re not.

And, I must mention when talking about manure, an important recent re-vision of cattle, livestock, feeding in pastures. Now, it’s been assessed for a long time, that what you’ve got to have for sheep and for cows is grass. “You must have grass, I dare say. You must have grass.” Oh, really, is that true? It is not true at all. It’s become a mania. It’s become a mania of people who sell weed-killers, plant killers. It’s become a monomania of the enormous millionaire-backing that supplies chemicals for numerous obscenities. And what did they do? They have most carefully ignited numerous chemicals that will destroy that weed and that plant and, “It won’t damage the grass, I promise you.” Well, of course it does. However, what it does do is very definitely kill certain plants, and doesn’t quite kill the grass, so they sell a lot of it. It’s very good advertisement.

Now, recently, somebody kind of stops and said, “You know, I wonder if that’s true, because after all, they didn’t have weed-killer sixty years ago.” So they did a test. They put numerous herbs in a pasture, and got them growing, clovers and numerous other herbs. And then they tried cattle in that. And they did a whole lot of tests on this matter. And very shortly they discovered that after cattle had been in fifty-percent herb and fifty-percent grass, they could not get them to eat in the pasture that was only grass. They didn’t even eat the grass. They wouldn’t touch it. In other words, the preference of choice, of palate of the dear old cow was the good general growth, herbage, in which are all the strengths and nutriments that are required for the digestion, the health, and the living matter of life. And this of course, is so in weeds far more than any cultured plant that we grow.

We discussed this in the last two times, and I’ll just repeat this matter. That all weeds of the origin... that are the origin of our cultured growth, of cabbages, cauliflowers, lettuce, beans, carnations, everything... All the wild ones, the origins, have intensely more strength of juices, vitalities, and effect than any of the cultured plants. Now, you have to assess the value of this matter, not only in bringing back into your stock-growth of plants, this matter, but you’ve also got to assess what this means to fodder for animals, and for man. And the importance of the vital strength and health of weeds growing in the growing areas.

For you understand that if you have three healthy girls or three healthy boys in a class, who love vitality, and are very healthy, and live in a healthy way, and play good games, and understand life, and are quick to learn, they will soon lead all the others on. And it’s only the real laggards that will fall out, and be left sitting in a corner, drooling. In other words, strength and vitality and good living does become invective. And this is exactly what nature at large, and weeds and wild animals do amongst the more cultured, which are running in to problems all the time, of weaknesses and deliriums.

I am stressing, and stressing the importance of weeds and their vitalities. We have mentioned that if you want the extraction of Anthemis, that is, Chamomile, as a good skin-lotion, as a gentle, soothing lotion, it is almost useless to go to the Anthemis in your garden. It hasn’t got much. If you go to the Anthemis that grows on the downs, on the grass, where it is trodden on by everybody and thrives beautifully because of it, it has eighty percent more than the garden one. Just like the Leontedon [dandelion] has sixty-eight percent of lactucarium compared, eight...—grams, I should say, not percent—sixty-eight grams of lactucarium in a leontedon compared to eight to eleven grams of lacutarium in a garden lettuce, or sativa.

You see, I am arriving at a point of discussing with you and suggesting to you that we’ve made a very big, horrible, ghastly mistake. We are trying to eradicate one of our greatest friends, weeds, and making no use of them. We make cellophane bags. We make things that you can’t destroy today, things that you can’t even open with things in them. You do. You have to get a chopper, and then you destroy the article before you can break it. And all these madnesses. Nature has nothing that is waste; everything is useable.

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