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Fallow
(788 words)

Letting fields lie fallow was a defining element of agriculture prior to the epochal changes called the agricultural revolution. Generally a year was integrated into the crop rotation in which a fixed proportion of the acreage remained unplanted (half in two-field rotation, a third in three-field rotation, etc.) [2. 13 f.]. The dormant phase enabled soil-biological processes of regeneration and the introduction of nitrogen from the atmosphere (Soil). Plowing up the fallow (cf. German Felge, “plowed-up fallow land”), carried on in June (also called fallow-month)…

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Troßbach, Werner, “Fallow”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_SIM_017754>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20180126



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