The Great Meadow: Farmers and the Land in Colonial Concord (Yale Agrarian Studies Series) - Softcover

Donahue, Brian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0300123698 ISBN 13: 9780300123692

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2007

Synopsis

An unprecedented look at how colonial farmers adapted to the challenges of New England’s climate and soil and achieved a sustainable agricultural system
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.

About this title

From the Publisher:

Also available by Brian Donahue: Reclaiming the Commons: Community Farms and Forests in a New England Town

From the Back Cover:

"In this extraordinary work, Brian Donahue reconstructs in minute and fascinating detail the interactions of people and ecosystems in colonial New England. There is no environmental history quite like it."--William Cronon, author of Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England; "Donahue knows this small New England place through the very soles of his feet. A lovely, sharp-eyed, and affectionate history of humans and nature in an America we have lost."-Donald Worster, author of Nature's Economy

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0300123698
• ISBN 13: 9780300123692
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 311