Page 2 RAIN Nov 197 5 RAIN is supported by your subscriptions and a grant from the N.W. Area Foundation, administered through the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. 2270 N.W. Irving, Portland, OR 97210, 227-5110. RAIN I Full Circle Staff Tom Bender Lane de Moll Lee Johnson Steve Johnson Nancy Lee Anne McLaughlin Mary Wells Typesetting: Irish Setter Printing: Times Litho Cover Photo: Ancil Nance Graphics on pp. 4, 7, 8, 14, 29: Martha Dyck The deadline for material is approximately the 28th of each month. We are selling RAIN through retail outlets. If you have some suggestions, please send them along. Maybe you could distribute in your area? In future issues we hope to do pieces on (1) putting together conferences, (2) personal changes, ( 3) China, ( 4) energy and employment, (5) video/cable directory, (6) urban farming, (7) regional resource inventories. Cover Photo: Looking into the sunset at 9,000 ft. from Illumination Saddle, Mt. Hood. RAIN DROPS As the person who handles money and the mailing list at RAIN, I have some requests to make of you who get RAIN in the mail. And since I respond better to requests that I understand the reasons for, I can't resist giving an explanation of mailing procedures and costs. When we mail out 200 pieces of mail that are all the same, all at the same time, sorted in zip code order, it costs us 1.8<t apiece. That's what happens once a month when we mail RAIN to everyone already on our list. The rest of the month we seem to be spending quite a bit of time mailing out single copies of the most recent RAIN, both to new subscribers and to people who want sample copies, and some others. When we send them one at a time like that, it costs us 1 B<t apiece. That's right, 10 times the bulk rate. It also means lots of time spent addressing those special copies and going to the post office to buy 18<1 stamps. So from now on I'm going to add most of those names to the list for the next issue of RAIN, unless you specifically request otherwise. €GRICULTURE • FOO~ Companion Plants and How to Use Them, by Helen Philbrick & Richard Gregg, 113 pp., $5.95 from: Devin-Adair Co. 143 Sound Beach Ave. Old Greenwich, CT 06870 A classic and pioneering book on one of . the least understood phases of ecology, namely plant antagonisms and plant symbiosis. Why do certain species of plants grow better in the presence of others, and why do some do poorly when others are present? This publication combines the finding of many individual observant gardeners. It is the best we've got until Richard Merrill of New Alchemy Institute-West has time to write down what he's learned. The Use ofthe Land: Essays on the History ofAmerican Agriculture, by John T. Schlebecker, 218 pp., $10.00 from: Coronado Press Box 3232 Lawrence, KS 66044 Very extensive bibliography, footnotes and index backing up comprehensive chapters on agriculture and urban growth, grasshoppers, sorghum monoculture in South Dakota, cattlemen on the plains, dairy journalism, curatorial agriculture. The author is curator of the Division of Agriculture & Mining at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Another burning issue is address changes. Unless you notify RAIN yourself that you're going to move (and where to), and we have time to change our list before the next mailing, you miss a copy, and we're charged l0<t to be notified of your new address or lack of one. (What happens is the PO takes your RAIN, puts a label on it giving your new address or saying "no forwarding address," and returns the magazine to us with l0<t postage due.) We request this service by putting "address correction requested" in our mailing label space because we want to keep track of you if you forget. But it's a lot easier if you take care of it ahead of time. Another thing: if you move and promise the PO that you'll pay for magazines and newspapers to be forwarded, they'll do it, but only for 90 days, and they still send us a notification of address change and charge us a dime. So please let us know ahead of time if you can. Anne McLaughlin The Biochemistry and Methodology of Composting, by Raymond Poincelot, Bulletin 754, Sept. 1975, 18 pp., single copies free from: Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station New Haven, CT An unbelievable reference list! This is an extremely fine publication, covering history, theory and practice, utilization of compost and trouble-shooting the balky compost pile. Also explains largescale municipal processes. Get this; and get their publication list. This is the kind of work that needs to be done. Biological Control of Plant Pathogens, by Kenneth F. Baker & R. James Cook, 1974, 433 pp., 57 illustrations, 5 tables, $12.50 from: W. H. Freeman 660 Market St. San Francisco, CA 94104 This is the first book devoted wholly to the microbial soil ecology. Years of research and observation has led to organization of this knowledge into a thorough treatment of principles and suggestions on practical application. The authors present bio-control as one part of an integrated disease-control program, along with cultivation practices, soil treatment, sanitation, host resistance and mild chemicals. On reading, one wonders how and to what degree the ecological principles mentioned might apply to human society. In any case, it's reassuring to have people knowledgeable about natural plant disease control right in one's own back yard ... Prof. Cook is at Washington State University in Pullman.
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