Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
used to assess the historic sustainability of manuring practices in arable
areas (rig land), and its consequent implications for the wider landscape
and social dimension in North Atlantic regions.
Site
Papa Stour (60
W) is a small (2000 ha) island off the west coast
of the Shetland mainland. The island is a unique site for the study of
deepened soils, since traditional manuring practices continued until 1960,
having probably been introduced to Papa Stour during the late Norse (~800
AD ) period (Simpson, 1997; Davidson and Carter, 1998). Following the
cessation of these practices, there has been little human disturbance of the
soil. The manuring practice involved the translocation of soil materials and
intensive use of animal manures. The USDA Soil Taxonomy classifies the
resulting soils as Plaggenthrepts (Soil Survey Staff, 1998) although a more
refined definition may be possible (Adderley et al ., submitted). If there
were no translocated material, the soils are likely to fall within the Walls
association found elsewhere on mainland Shetland (Soil Survey of
Scotland, 1982), which would be classified under USDA Soil Taxonomy
as Humods (Soil Survey Staff, 1998). The land use of Papa Stour has a
distinctive division between the intensively managed 'infield' and the
extensive 'outfield' area, separated by a head dyke. Within the 'infield', it
is evident that various specific types of land use practice were adopted
for selected areas. The most complete ethnographic information relates to
Bragasetter farm (HU 174 595) and arable rig land, and these, therefore,
provide the focus of this study.
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Ethnographic and Historical Information
From semi-structured interviews during 1998 with present-day farmers on
Papa Stour and from ethnographic evidence collected during the 1960s, a
detailed picture of the now abandoned traditional manuring practices on
Papa Stour emerges (Irvine, 1846; Ordnance Survey, 1886, 1901; Fenton,
1978). Other historical sources, used to provide greater time depth for the
model, include the Sinclair (1791-1799), Low (1879), Skirving (1874),
Donaldson (1954), Brand (1683) and Evershed (1874), confirming the
general pattern of early manuring in defined areas of the landscape, which
mirrors practices used in continental Europe described previously by,
amongst others, Neimeier and Taschenmacher (1939) and Spek (1992).
Quantification of these manuring practices was made possible by
calculating volumes of kishie (basket carried by back ~90 dm −3 ) used to
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