The Slavs, both eastern and western, preferred a sedentary lifestyle. Their main occupation was farming. The tribes inhabiting the forest-steppe zones (where the soil is relatively fertile) used the fallow system, or fallow. Forest dwellers were forced to practice slash-and-burn agriculture. Both of these systems are primitive. They are labor intensive and have low productivity. Primitive agriculture and the primitive communal system are closely related. In some developing countries, undercutting is still the main way of cultivating the land.
Slash-and-fire farming system: technology
To prepare the site for sowing, the trees on it were cut down or cut (partially removed the bark). Trunks and branches were evenly distributed over the future field, some were exported to the village to be used as firewood. “Cut” trees were left to dry on the vine. Typically, after about a year (in spring or late summer), the cut down forest or dead wood was burned. Sowing was carried out directly in warm ash. Soil prepared in this way did not require plowing and fertilizer. Workers only needed 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 the fall. On loamy soils, the field was sown on average for 6 years, on sandy soils - no longer than 3. After that, the land was depleted. Then the site could be used as pasture or mowing. The forest was restored about 50 years after the land was “left alone”.
Benefits
Calcination of the soil ensured its sterilization, destruction of pathogens of various diseases. Ash saturated the earth with phosphorus, potassium and calcium, which were 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 method of managing did not require the use of any complex (specific) tools. In most cases, they cost an ax, a hoe and a harrow. According to one Arab traveler, the Slavs grew millet in the best way. In addition, rye, barley, wheat, flax, and garden crops were grown on the undercut.
disadvantages
Slash-and-burn agriculture is a hard and laborious collective labor. This type of management provides a huge amount of free land and a very long period of restoration of their fertility. One plot of land conquered from the forest is not able to feed a large number of people. At first, this was not required: the Slavs lived in small clan communities. They had the opportunity to abandon the barren land and cultivate a new site. But as the population of undeveloped land grew, it became less and less. People had to return to old sites. The business cycle gradually decreased, the forest did not have time to grow. This means that the ash was getting smaller, and it could not provide the soil with useful substances in the proper amount. Productivity was falling. Slash-and-burn agriculture became less and less profitable every year.
In addition, already in the second year, the earth was sintering, becoming solid and ceased to allow moisture to pass through. Before the next sowing, it had to be processed well. In order to qualitatively loosen the earth, heavier harrows were required, which it was already difficult for a person to cope without the help of draft animals.
Instruments
Slash-and-burn agriculture of the Eastern Slavs did not imply 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. Big clods of earth broke it. They buried the land with the help of a cow, which was made of a small coniferous tree with chopped branches. Later, other “models” appeared: a heavy harrow-bow (made of chopped trunks connected by a bast) and a harrow-tray (a board made of linden, into which long fir branches were inserted). There were also primitive rakes. When harvesting used sickles. They threshed with flails, and crushed the grain with the help of stone grater and manual millstones.
Slash-and-burn agriculture: distribution and time frames
This system of management has arisen in time immemorial. During the Bronze Age, it gradually spread in the forest regions of Europe, but the ancestors of the Slavs mastered it only in the Iron Age. Burning was practiced by the Scandinavians (the Finns were longer than others), various Finno-Ugric peoples (Komi, Karelians, Udmurts - up to the 19th century), residents of the Baltic and northern Germany, settlers in North America and some peoples of Southern Europe. In some countries of Africa, Asia, and South America, slash-and-burn farming is still the main occupation of the peasantry.