Hacker News Reader

Here I was scanning the article for what they floated on. I had assumed it was a peat-bog type situation.

I guess the key benefit of this strategy is that the water level is high and the water is nutrient rich? Otherwise it's pretty similar to a standard canal irrigation setup.

View on HN

They replenished the dirt on the islands with night soil dredged up from the bottom of the lake every year so it was basically a mound of fertilizer that’s always soaked through with water.

It’s as close to an ideal growing condition as pre-industrial societies had.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com