Slash-and-burn agriculture. Slash and burn agriculture of the Eastern Slavs

Slavs - both eastern and western - preferred a sedentary lifestyle. Their main occupation was agriculture. The tribes inhabiting the forest-steppe zones (where the soil is relatively fertile) used a transitional system, or a prologue. Inhabitants of forests were forced to practice slash-and-burn agriculture. Both of these systems are primitive. They require a lot of labor and are characterized by low productivity. Primitive agriculture and the primitive communal system are closely connected. In some developing countries, cutting is still the main way of cultivating land.

Slash-and-burn farming system: technology

To prepare a plot for sowing, the trees on it were cut down or cut (partially removed bark). The trunks and branches were evenly distributed over the future field, some were taken to the village to be used as firewood. The "truncated" trees were allowed to dry on the vine. As a rule, after about a year (in the spring or at the end of the summer), the cut wood or dead wood was burnt. Sowing was made directly into warm ash. So prepared soil did not require plowing and fertilization. The workers needed only to level the field and root out the roots with hoes.

Slash-and-burn farming system guaranteed an excellent harvest, but only in the first year after the fall. On loamy soils, the field was sown on average for 6 years, on sandy soils - no longer than 3. After that, the earth was depleted. Then the site could be used as pasture or mowing. The forest was restored about 50 years after the earth was "left alone".

Benefits

Quenching the soil ensured its sterilization, the destruction of pathogens of various diseases. The ashes saturate the earth with phosphorus, potassium and calcium, which were then easily assimilated by the plants. Such a system of farming provided for minimal tillage in the first year. Meanwhile, the yield at first was high (for those times) - from self-30 to self-100. Finally, this method of management did not require the use of any complex (specific) tools of labor. In most cases, they used an ax, a hoe and a harrow. According to one Arab traveler, millet grew in the best way among the Slavs. In addition, rye, barley, wheat, flax, and garden crops were grown on the undergrowth.

disadvantages

Slash-and-burn farming is a difficult and time-consuming collective labor. This type of management provides for a huge number of vacant land and a very long period of restoration of their fertility. One piece of land, reclaimed from the forest, is not able to feed a large number of people. At first, this was not required: the Slavs lived in small tribal communities. They had the opportunity to cast infertile land and process a new site. But as the population of undeveloped lands grew, it became less and less. People had to return to old sites. The economic cycle gradually decreased, the forest did not have time to grow. This means that the ash was getting smaller, and it could not provide the soil with useful substances in the proper volume. Yields were falling. Slash-and-burn farming became less and less profitable every year.

In addition, in the second year the earth was caking, becoming firm and ceasing to pass moisture. Before the next sowing, it had to be well treated. In order to qualitatively loosen the earth, more heavy harrows were needed, which it was already difficult for a man to cope without the help of draft animals.

Instruments

Slash and burn agriculture of the Eastern Slavs Did not imply a wide range of agricultural implements. The bark in the trees was cut with knives, cutting was carried out with the help of axes (at first - stone ones, then - iron ones). The roots were removed with an iron hoe. It was smashed by large clods of earth. Boronili earth with the help of suhovatki, which was made from a small coniferous tree with twined boughs. Later, other "models" appeared: a heavy harrow (from split shafts connected by a bast) and a harrow-tray (a board made of lime, into which long spruce branches were inserted). There were also primitive rakes. Sickles were used for harvesting. They threshed them with chains, and crushed the grain with the help of stone grain cutters and hand grindstones.

Slash-and-burn agriculture: distribution and timeframe

This system of management arose in time immemorial. During the Bronze Age, it gradually spread in the forest regions of Europe, but the ancestors of the Slavs mastered it only in the Iron Age. Burning practiced Scandinavians (longer than others - Finns), various Finno-Ugric peoples (Komi, Karelians, Udmurts - until the 19th century), the inhabitants of the Baltic and northern Germany, settlers in North America and some peoples of Southern Europe. In some countries of Africa, Asia, South America, slash-and-burn farming is still the main occupation of the peasantry.