THE IMPRINTING FOUNDATION: Its Origins Dedicated to the development and extension of new technologies promoting sustainable agriculture and ecological restoration This   is   a   brief   history   of   the   no-tillage   method   of   planting   &   seeding   called   land imprinting.   This   method,   invented   in   1976,   is   the   first   uniquely   new   approach   for large scale seeding and planting developed in the past 3 centuries after Jethro Tull invented the seed drill in 1702. Unlike   the   Tull   drill   and   similar   developments   during   the   past   several   centuries,   the   imprinter   does   not   make continuous   furrows   that   tend   to   bleed   land   resources   downslope   when   water   arrives   at   the   air-earth   interface   (AEI) in   the   form   of   rainfall,   snow   melt   and   irrigation.   These   continuous   furrows,   and   often   the   need   for   pre-drill   tillage, make    the   Tull-type    drill    an    unsustainable    cultural    practice    due    to    accelerated    water    runoff    and    soil    erosion, especially on sloping land.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Tombstone Prototype                                                                                                                                                                  In   contrast,   Imprinters   make   staggered   V-shaped   pockets,   one-square-foot   in   size,   that   funnel   resources   together   in the   bottom   of   the   Vee   where   they   can   work   in   concert   to   germinate   seeds   and   establish   seedlings   using   a   minimal amount   of   water.   Imprints   are   formed   by   vertical   and   lateral   forces   acting   on   V-shaped   steel   teeth   welded   to   the surface of a steel roller in a staggered pattern. The teeth wedge their way into the soil surface. Imprinters   are   based   on   AEI   research   that   found   that   the   two   main   properties   controlling   water   infiltration   into   dry   soils   were   AEI   micro roughness   and   macro-porosity.   Land   imprinting   was   developed   to   control   these   two   properties   at   high   levels   with   minimal   soil   disturbance. Finally,   land   imprinting   excels   at   holding   soil   and   water   resources   in   place   for   seed   germination,   seedling   establishment   and   plant   growth. Land   imprinting   specifications   have   been   recently   established   for   achieving   sustainable   agriculture   and   ecological   restoration   of   degraded land. These specifications will be updated periodically because land imprinting is a work in progress indefinitely into the future.

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