The Great Meadow: Farmers and the Land in Colonial Concord

the great meadow: farmers and the land in colonial concord

The Great Meadow: Farmers and the Land in Colonial Concord

Editorial Reviews
Review
Mart Stewart :

"I used The Great Meadow in my graduate seminar in American Environmental History last winter, and it was a great success. I think the book appealed to the students because it is so grounded in the real world of living on the land in colonial New England, and also because it reveals the previously ignored land wisdom of colonial farmers. This is a good teaching book for both graduate students and upper-level history majors."-Mart Stewart, Western Washington University

Book 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 an innovative, accessible, and authoritative 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. Donahue describes in precise detail--using among other tools an innovative historical geographical information system (GIS) method--how land was settled and how mixed husbandry was developed in Concord. By reconstructing several farm neighborhoods and following them through many generations, he reveals the care with which farmers managed the land, soil, and water. He 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.

The Great Meadow: Farmers and the Land in Colonial Concord

The Great Meadow: Farmers and the Land in Colonial Concord,Brian Donahue,Yale University Press,0300097514,Agricultural ecology,Agriculture,Agriculture - General,Concord Region,Environmental Conservation & Protection - General,History,Massachusetts,Meadows,Nature,Nature/Ecology,Reference,Technology & Industrial Arts,United States - Colonial Period,Agriculture & Farming,Agriculture & related industries,American history: c 1500 to c 1800,Economic history,Technology / Agriculture & Animal Husbandry,c 1600 to c 1700,c 1700 to c 1800

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