soil

Stoll traces the origins of nineteenth-century conservation, which grew out of a rich and heated discussion, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, about soil fertility, plant nutrition, and livestock management. More fundamental than any other resource, soil “became the focal point for a conception of nature as strictly limited.” The problem gave rise to a major disagreement about the wisdom of territorial expansion.

Nature’s Management is a collection of early nineteenth century agricultural writings by Edmund Ruffin, topically arranged to highlight Virginia’s fence enclosure laws, municipal public health measures to combat malaria, wetlands drainage and reclamation, and observations of the geology, botany, and culture of Virginia and the Carolinas.

This study examines the debates on, and processes of, land reform in Zimbabwe during the independence era, exploring the social, economic, and political contexts of perceptions of land redistribution and management.

Under the European colonial powers, agricultural methods and techniques, along with well-organized routines in sugar production, were developed on the Caribbean islands with a view to managing sugar plantations as efficiently as possible. The results were in many cases deforestation, impoverished soils, and erosion.

The Brauns started farming organically in 1984. This documentary film explores the day-to-day operation of their farm in Bavaria. Among other things, it shows how vital earthworms are for soil fertility.

A portrait of Michael Simml, a pioneering organic farmer based in the Bavarian Forest, and his methods of yielding the highest returns from the most challenging of soils.

Conservation Song explores ways in which colonial relations shaped meanings and conflicts over environmental control and management in Malawi. By focusing on soil conservation, which required an integrated approach to the use and management of such natural resources as land, water, and forestry, it examines the origins and effects of policies and their legacies in the post-colonial era.

This multi-authored collection examines the complex interrelations between societies in different parts of the world and the soils they relied on from the perspectives of geomorphology, archaeology, pedology, and history.

An introduction to seven articles—five of which are written by current doctoral or recent postdoctoral students—that explore ideas, themes, and methods relating to research in the field in New Zealand.