The Great Meadow
Subtitle: Farmers and the Land in Colonial Concord
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: June 10, 2004
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 344
ISBN-13: 9780300097511
Subjects: Agriculture & Farming; Agriculture & related industries; American history: c 1500 to c 1800; Economic history; c 1600 to c 1700; c 1700 to c 1800; Nature; Technology & Industrial Arts; Nature/Ecology; Agriculture - General; Environmental Conservation & Protection - General; United States - Colonial Period; Technology / Agriculture & Animal Husbandry; Reference; Agricultural ecology; Agriculture; Concord Region; History; Massachusetts; Meadows
Description: "The farmers of colonial New England have been widely accused of farming extensively, neglecting manure, wearing out their land, and moving on. But did they? And if so, when and why? Brian Donahue offers a history of the early farming practices of Concord, Massachusetts, and challenges the long-standing notion that colonial husbandry degraded the land. In fact, he argues, the Concord community of farmers achieved a remarkably successful and sustainable system of local production." "Employing precise geographical information system (GIS) mapping of land ownership and land use, Donahue describes how the land was settled and how mixed husbandry was developed in Concord. By reconstructing several farm neighborhoods and following them through many generations, he reveals a diverse sustainable farming system of tillage, orchards, pastures, hay meadows, and woodlots that required careful management of soil and water. Donahue concludes that ecological degradation came to Concord only later, when nineteenth-century economic and social forces undercut the environmental balance that earlier colonial farmers had nurtured."--BOOK JACKET.