Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Sowing
(995 words)

Sowing entails the selection, preparation, and planting of seeds. Selection, as a core element of agricultural practice since the Neolithic, contributes to the emergence of domesticated plant breeds (see Plant breeding). In the case of grains, the process was mainly conducted internally to each farming unit, that is, the types cultivated by each were re-sown successively. Some authors of Hausväterliteratur recommended that the “most beautiful” grains should be selected for sowing [2. 38–42], but a Silesian guide of 1590 recommended for buckwheat that the “most…

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Troßbach, Werner, “Sowing”, 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 02 October 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_SIM_026880>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20180208



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