Slavs - both eastern and western - preferred a settled way of life. Their main occupation was agriculture. The tribes that inhabited the forest-steppe zones (where the soil is relatively fertile) used the shifting system, or fallow. The inhabitants of the forests were forced to practice slash-and-burn agriculture. Both of these systems are primitive. They require a lot of labor and are characterized by low productivity. Primitive agriculture and the primitive communal system are closely related. In some developing countries, slashing is still the main way of cultivating the land.
Slash and burn farming: technology
To prepare a plot for sowing, the trees on it were cut down or cut down (partially removed the bark). Trunks and branches were evenly distributed over the future field, some were taken to the village to be used as firewood. "Cut" trees were left to dry on the vine. As a rule, after about a year (in the spring or at the end of summer), the cut down forest or deadwood was burned. Sowing was carried out directly inwarm ash. The soil prepared in this way did not require plowing and fertilization. The workers only had to level the field and uproot the roots with hoes.
The slash-and-burn system of agriculture guaranteed an excellent harvest, but only in the first year after it fell. On loamy soils, the field was sown for an average of 6 years, on sandy soils - no longer than 3. After that, the land was depleted. Then the site could be used as a pasture or mowing. The forest was recovering about 50 years after the land was “left alone.”
Benefits
The calcination of the soil ensured its sterilization, the destruction of pathogens of various diseases. The ash saturates the earth with phosphorus, potassium and calcium, which are subsequently easily absorbed by plants. Such a farming system provided for minimal tillage in the first year. Meanwhile, the yield was initially high (at that time) - from sam-30 to sam-100. Finally, this way of managing did not require the use of any complex (specific) tools. In most cases, they managed with an ax, a hoe and a harrow. According to one Arab traveler, millet grew best among the Slavs. In addition, rye, barley, wheat, flax, garden crops were grown on the undercut.
Flaws
Slash-and-burn farming is hard and labor intensive collective labor. This type of management provides for a huge amount of free land and a very long period of restoration of their fertility. One piece of landreclaimed from the forest, unable to feed a large number of people. At first, this was not required: the Slavs lived in small tribal communities. They had the opportunity to abandon the barren land and cultivate a new plot. But as the population grew, undeveloped land became less and less. People had to return to the old sites. The economic cycle gradually decreased, the forest did not have time to grow. This means that there was less ash, and it could not provide the soil with useful substances in the proper amount. Yields dropped. Slash-and-burn agriculture became less and less profitable every year.
Besides, already in the second year the earth was sintered, became hard and ceased to pass moisture. Before the next sowing, it had to be well processed. In order to qualitatively loosen the earth, heavier harrows were required, which it was already difficult for a person to cope with without the help of draft animals.
Tools
Slash-and-burn agriculture of the Eastern Slavs did not involve a wide range of agricultural implements. The bark on the trees was cut with knives, felling was carried out with the help of axes (at first - stone, then - iron). The roots were removed with an iron hoe. She also broke large clods of earth. They harrowed the earth with the help of a knot, which was made from a small coniferous tree with cut branches. Later, other "models" appeared: a heavy harrow-smyk (from splittrunks connected with a bast) and a harrow-tray (a board made of linden, into which long spruce branches were inserted). There were also primitive rakes. When harvesting, sickles were used. They threshed with flails, and ground the grain with stone grinders and hand millstones.
Slash-and-burn agriculture: distribution and timing
This system of managing originated in time immemorial. During the Bronze Age, it gradually spread into the forest regions of Europe, but the ancestors of the Slavs mastered it only in the Iron Age. Burning was practiced by Scandinavians (longer than others - Finns), various Finno-Ugric peoples (Komi, Karelians, Udmurts - up to the 19th century), residents of the B altic states and northern Germany, settlers in North America and some peoples of Southern Europe. In some countries of Africa, Asia, South America, slash-and-burn agriculture is still the main occupation of the peasantry.
