Principle:  “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven…a time to break down, and a time to build up.” Ecclesiastes 3:1-3

Promise  “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest…shall not cease.” Genesis 8:22

TIMING IN AGRICULTURE

A Time to Break Down

A time to break down the soil, called tilling, has a critical timing in order to maintain the organic matter levels.  Waiting until the soil is no longer sticky, yet not so dry that it becomes difficult to till, provides a time for properly flipping the soil so that the top is down and the bottom is up. 

Plowing must achieve this specific purpose.  Besides covering weeds, the phosphates and carbons that rise all season to the surface of the soil must be turned under.  The calcium that washed down during the season must be put back on top.  This allows the calcium to bond to the phosphates and carbons.  As the ascending phosphates and carbons pass theses descending calcium particles, they catch the hold them for the plant’s use.  The roots then pluck them off these colloids, as they need them. 

The carbon will be transferred by flipping the soil so that I can serve as food for microbes living deep within the soil.  If this operation is done when the soil is too wet, compaction will reduce the air necessary for these deep-dwelling microbes.  Even though carbon for food is provided, they would perish for lack of oxygen. 

Timing is critical for successful plowing to be done.  The soil should be manageable enough to be squeezed into a ball in the hand, yet crumble when poked with the finger.  This test can be used with most soils.  We must wait until this condition exists before plowing.  God brings about these conditions as He wills.  We are to obey, and plow when He says, “Plow.”  No scheduled agriculture day can reliably predict this date.  Learning to set your plans before God each morning and then obeying His directives for the day is the number one lesson agriculture teaches. 

A Time to Build Up

A time to build up, or to enrich the soil, also exists.  Liming should be done in the fall in the temperate zones.  As the plant grows through the season, it plucks calcium and other elements off the soil colloid and replaces the receptor site with an acid.  The soil becomes more acid through the growing season. 

Lime, potash, and other nutrients should be spread after the harvest.  This is the time of the soil’s highest potential to absorb these elements in preparation for the growing season.  Vehicles for spreading lime, manure or other nutrients as well as our footprints, must wait until the weather is right to avoid compaction of the soil.  Experiments done on farmland using different size tractors, from the largest and heaviest to the smallest and lightest, using the same fertilizers, showed a fifteen percent increase in yield per acre by using smaller, less compacting equipment. 

A study of God’s law and order in agriculture teaches that He sets the time for all things, from initiation to completion.  The old mindset that we plan our day, our week, our month, our year, must go.  A new mind must be put within us, the mind of Christ (Romans 12:2).  Christ knew His heavenly Father had the time right for every phase of the planting to harvesting cycle.  He learned by observation that His heavenly Father had the time right time to plant the seeds of truth, the right time to kill the weeds of error, the right time to build up His following, the right time to tear it down (John 6:66), and the right time to harvest for the highest quality and quantity.  All nature operates by law.  God has created these laws for us to observe, to obey, and to reap blessings from.  Ignorance brings a curse, such as compaction to the soil with all its evil results… 

As weather unfolds for the year’s season, we must be ready every day for each phase of the planting, growing, and harvesting cycle.  God gives us the weather we need as He chooses… 

I realize that the depth of the hole we find ourselves in is such that most of us do not feel that we can live a life harkening moment by moment to the directives of God in nature.  But I ask you to put aside these fears, if you possibly can, just for a moment, and imagine the lesson taught by letting God give you His orders for an entire growing season… 

“Men were to cooperate with God in restoring the diseased land to health, that it might be a praise and glory to His name.  And as the land they possessed would, if managed with skill and earnestness, produce its treasures, so their hearts, if controlled by God, would reflect His character…In the laws which God gave for the cultivation of the soil, He was giving the people opportunity to overcome their selfishness and become heavenly-minded.” (MS 121) 

The laws of God are to be obeyed.  They are to be obeyed when God says to obey them.  This produces “heavenly-minded” people.  This produces hearts that will reflect His character.