Limits reaffirmed: new wheat frontiers in Australia, 1916–1939

At the opening of the twentieth century, it was apparent that good agricultural land was getting scarce even in the New World. There was still a strong political need, especially in countries that owed their existence to an agricultural frontier, to open new land and increase farming population. During the 1920s, Isaiah Bowman in the United States devised what he called “scientific settlement”, a form of social planning. In the countries that had already embarked on extending their farm land, their initiative was something less than scientific settlement. As an illustration, South Australia and New South Wales legislated the resumption of certain pastoral areas for re-allocation as primarily wheat-based farmlands that would provide the heavier rural population sought by politicians. The need to reward soldiers for service in the First World War became a major stimulus to expansion. Whereas there was ample evidence of the unreliability of conditions in most of the areas chosen, the authorities dispatched settlers to relatively small properties and provided only disjointed and tardy support. When the new wheat frontier proved to be expensive and rife with failures, the authorities blamed the settlers. In the circumstances, however, the performance of the settlers was more praiseworthy than the weight of historical opinion has suggested. Even the soldier settlers, who were put at a disadvantage by the high cost of their land and interest, ultimately achieved a success rate comparable to that of civilian ‘closer’ settlers who generally had better land and easier terms of purchase.     

The Formation of Functional Types of Settlements in the Southern Tayga

The original settlement pattern of farming villages in the Angara-Yenisey river district, which dates from the 17th century, has been greatly altered by the introduction of new economic activities, such as gold mining, lumbering, and transport services. A flow of population from agriculture to industry has been evident in the steady decline of population in farming villages, many of which have been amalgamated with adjoining industrial settlements.     

THE SETTLEMENT OF EUROPEAN RUSSIA DURING THE ROMANOV PERIOD (1613-1917)

This paper compares and contrasts Russian frontier experiences on the northern and southern parts of the European plain during the Romanov era (1613-1917). Both were “open” frontiers, in Turner's sense of a frontier as the “hither edge of free land,” but their environments and the settlement processes which affected them were very different. It is suggested that the character of a frontier society is decisively influenced by the process whereby settlers must adapt to their new environment, the features which attract them to that environment, and the character of the pre-existing inhabitants. The northern frontier formed part of what Meinig has called a “boreal riverine empire” with a harsh environment, to which paradoxically the Russians found it relatively easy to adapt, the great attraction of fur-bearing animals and reasonably benign relations with native peoples. By contrast, the southern frontier was a “frontier of exclusion,” following Lattimore's phrase, with hostile indigenes, a natural environment demanding special methods of adaptation, but with many more attractions than the north. Such contrasts gave rise to considerable differences in the settlement process, in the character of land allocation and in the type of society evolving subsequently, with long-term consequences for emerging human landscapes.     

晋中平原地区农村聚落扩展分析

在实地考察的基础上，章从规模、速度、形态和类型等方面分析了晋中平原地区农村聚落扩展的特点，并深入探讨了影响农村聚落扩展的因素，认为聚落扩展主要是人口增长和家庭规模变化、社会经济发展与收入增加、交通条件改善、农村地区工业化及其他因素共同作用的结果。最后指出了由于聚落扩展而带来的许多难以解决的问题。     

Territory—A Natural Resource of Georgia and Problems of its use for Settlement

The problem of the conversion of land use from farming to settlement or construction presents a particularly issue in mountainous regions like Georgia where usable land resources are scarce. Whenever possible, valuable agricultural land should not be removed from cropping and be used for expansion of the settled area. If such conversion is unavoidable, the land should be carefully evaluated and compensation paid to the agricultural establishment concerned. In general, unused land should be chosen for construction, even if additional outlays are needed for improvement. A formula is proposed for comparing the additional outlays needed to improve poor land with the loss in net income that would be suffered by the conversion of farm land to construction.     

Changes in the Geography of Rural Settlement in the Old Settled Areas of the Virgin Lands

The present settlement pattern of the long-settled northern part of the virgin lands consists of relatively small population centers. On the basis of field work, the author finds that the concentration of population in larger centers at the expense of subsidiary settlements would provide better services to the rural population without interfering with the efficiency of farm operations.     

16—20世纪滇池流域的乡村聚落与人地关系——以柴河三角洲为例

本文选取滇池南缘的柴河三角洲为研究对象,试图在小尺度范围内复原明清以来柴河三角洲乡村聚落的发展、分布,并进一步揭示明清以降在人类活动加剧的背景下滇池流域的人地互动。研究发现,从明代中后期至清代,柴河三角洲在滇池水利开发、三角洲营田技术的运用以及南岸入滇河流自然沉积的共同作用下得以迅速沉积,最终形成于18世纪。聚落随着三角洲的沉积不断向滇池岸边拓展。受到土地开发过程和土壤肥力分布等因素的影响,聚落分布的密度则从三角洲上部到底端逐渐递减。     

Some Notices of Records Preserved Amongst the Corporation Archives at Southampton

Over three seasons between 1979 and 1981 the author undertook, on behalf of the then Historic Buildings and Monuments Directorate (Scottish Development Department), the rescue excavation of a 2.4 ha native settlement in advance of land reclamation for upland arable farming. Though limited in extent, the excavations identified a complex sequence of four major phases of occupation. Dating evidence was scarce but occupation appears to have begun as an unenclosed settlement during the Iron Age that was subsequently enclosed within earthen ramparts. Occupation inside the earthworks continued at least until the second century A.D. and a succession of later phases of building indicates that the site may have been settled continually or intermittently until the seventeenth century.     

Farm size and work ethic: measuring the success of immigrant farmers on the American grasslands, 1875–1925

With the general increase in the scale of American farming over the last 100 years, farm size has sometimes been used as a measure of financial success. This measure requires considerable modification, particularly when the intensity of farming is introduced. The average size of farms also varied according to government land granting policy, stage of settlement, accessibility to markets, fluctuations in market prices for farm produce and variations in climate which affected harvest yields. In this essay the validity of farm size as a measure of success is considered and then applied to three immigrant groups in central Kansas to determine the importance of the work ethic in their value systems. The Mennonites, not unexpectedly, appear to have been the most successful farmers, but the French-Canadians, contrary to general wisdom, achieved a higher level of success than Swedish immigrant farmers.     

长株潭地区聚落空间演化及其与耕地的空间关系研究

对2000年、2005年及2010年的遥感影像图进行解译,得到3个时期的土地利用分类图,运用景观指数法和空间分析法等方法,对长株潭地区聚落的空间演化特征及动因进行分析,并分析了聚落与耕地之间的空间关系。结果表明:长株潭地区聚落的面积、数量规模和分布密度加速扩大,集中分布在高程200 m以下;聚落空间演化的自然动因是低地平原指向,而社会动因是人口规模的变化;提出耕地与聚落面积比指数(K)概念,根据K值的大小可以将耕地与聚落的空间组合关系分为3类地区:耕地资源紧缺区、耕地资源平衡区、耕地资源盈余区;聚落与耕地的空间转移关系可以分为两大类:持续稳定型和动态变化型;长沙市周边耕地转为聚落的趋势十分明显;聚落空间扩张对耕地的影响存在一个空间临界点,城市化速度越快,临界点的位置距离聚落越远。     

Estonian family farms in transition: a study of intangible assets and gender issues in generational succession

This paper, based on interviews, highlights intangible assets in the intergenerational transfer of farms in two Estonian municipalities from a long-term and gender perspective. The study stretches from the interwar period in the twentieth century up to the present. It has been shown that emotional bonds to the land are generally strong in Estonia. This paper aims to highlight how such bonds and feelings may influence decisions on generational succession. The results of the study indicate that family farming and land transfer have had a significant and persistent role in Estonian society, even during the Soviet period under its collectivised system of agriculture. Transfers of intangible assets were important during Soviet rule, for example, the transfer of knowledge about the pre-Soviet property and the value and importance of the farmhouse. Today, family farming is gradually declining in importance, but older traditions of farm and farmhouse transfer can still be found, such as early decisions on who is to be the successor. This is evident among active farmers but also among former farmers with strong emotional bonds to the land. Traditional gender roles tend towards men’s knowledge still generally being more highly valued in the decision about who is to be the successor to the family land.     

Locational decision-making on a Scottish estate prior to enclosure

Before the main burst of agricultural improvements, taking place in Scotland in the latter part of the eighteenth century, farming was carried out from fermtouns; these were groupings of farmsteadings and their fields. This paper seeks to determine the factors underlying the decisions that were taken in the location of the farmsteads and the different elements into which the agricultural land was divided. Isolated for examination are the distance-decay function and natural environmental factors, basically those of soil conditions. The importance of natural soil drainage conditions appears to decide the location of both intensively and extensively cultivated land while in many cases the farmsteadings also lie closest to the permanent arable land. Definite statements about the decision-making process cannot, however, be made due to our present rudimentary understanding of the stability of settlement sites and the true origins of the infield-outfield system.     

Deserted medieval villages and fields in Germany,a survey of the literature with a select bibliography

In Germany research into deserted settlements developed into an important branch of settlement history. It was realized that the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, following on a period of high-medieval expansion of settlement and cultivated land, were themselves a time of great decline. The theoretical explanation for this development is the late-medieval agricultural crisis, a concomitant of the late-medieval fall in population. We must distinguish between a high-medieval phase of settlement desertion associated with a concentration of population into larger villages and towns without a drop in absolute population figures, and a late-medieval desertion period when settlements and fields contracted because of loss of life due to famines and the Black Death. Different research methods have been used to locate deserted settlement sites, both from documentary evidence (Rückschreibung) and by doing field-work. By mapping the relict features of deserted villages and fields our knowledge of the evolution of settlement- and field-patterns was increased. In particular, the evolution of the three-field-system has been explained as part of the concentration of population into larger settlements. A classification of the desertion process has helped with the terminological clarification of the subject, although there remain areas of dispute. The introduction of the desertion quotient made it possible to map the distribution of the deserted settlements. In the light of most recent research based on medieval archaeology this map needs corrections. It is now obvious that the late-medieval desertion quotient was not only high in areas of marginal land quality but also in fertile areas with a long history of settlement continuity. In those areas vestiges of earlier occupations were literally ploughed into the ground. This example illustrates that future research on deserted settlements must be of an interdisciplinary nature.     

Geographical Preplanning Studies of Economic Complexes in the South of Krasnoyarsk Kray

The planning of the Sayan economic complex, a major development region in the South of Krasnoyarsk Kray, is found to have focused mainly on the use of local resources without adequately considering the complex interplay of man-nature relationships. In particular, little work has been done on problems of landscape ecology, including a determination of landscape budgets and of the ecological functioning of geosystems. The results of relevant investigations are presented, focusing on the present distribution of production and settlement within the study region, the natural landscape and forest use, land and agroclimatic resources, types of farming and levels of farm equipment, and some aspects of human ecology. The study region is found to suffer from excessive concentration of production and settlement in the center of the Minusinsk Basin, a net out-migration exceeding natural increase of population, and an extensive type of farming that is less economical than the dairy economy and truck produce required for a growing urban population.     

The Siege of Colchester

Archaeological excavations in advance of quarrying at Cheviot Quarry, Northumb. have produced important evidence for Neolithic, Late Bronze Age and Dark Age settlements. Neolithic pit features containing domestic midden material including broken pottery, lithics and cereal grains from two distinct parts of the quarry have provided evidence for what is interpreted as settlement and subsistence activity from the Early and Later Neolithic periods. Together with the Neolithic remains from the nearby sites at Thirlings and those recently excavated at Lanton Quarry, it provides evidence for significant, and perhaps intensive, settlement on the sand and gravel terraces of the Milfield Plain throughout the Neolithic. Indeed, these sites provide the precursors to the better known ceremonial and henge complex located nearby which probably dates to the Beaker period. Radiocarbon determinations associated with the full sequence of Neolithic pottery have been obtained from Cheviot Quarry and analysis of the residues adhering to the ceramics has provided some of the earliest evidence for dairy farming in the region, as well as information relating to other dietary and subsistence practices. Two substantial roundhouses with porches, internal hearths and pits containing domestic refuse, provide the first evidence for Late Bronze Age lowland settlement in the region. The botanical macrofossil and faunal evidence, together with the pottery residues, show clear evidence for arable and pastoral activity in a small, unenclosed farming settlement. A detailed programme of radiocarbon dating and the application of Bayesian modelling has shown that these two buildings are contemporary and date to the tenth century cal. BC. In addition to this prehistoric archaeology, three Dark Age, rectangular, post-built buildings were also discovered on the site and have been radiocarbon dated to the fifth or early sixth century cal. AD. These substantial, although heavily truncated, structures are thought to represent the homesteads of a small farming community, although the lack of material culture makes understanding their use and cultural attribution problematic. Because of their early date these buildings could have belonged to either post-Roman British inhabitants or perhaps early Anglo-Saxon mercenaries or settlers. A reconstruction of one of these buildings has been built close to the site at the nearby Maelmin Heritage Trail where it can be visited by the public.     

国内外农村居民点区位研究评述

随着人类经济社会的发展,居民点的外在特征和空间结构也在不断的演化与变迁,居住地点的选址和布局最能反映出人类活动与地理环境之间的相互影响与作用机制。目前国内外在城市居住区位研究方面已经形成大量研究成果,相比之下,农村居民点相关研究还存在一定滞后。文章从居民点区位影响因素、区位演变、居民点分布和等级结构四方面对国外相关研究进行了评述,梳理了国内农村居民点区位研究的相关内容,在此基础上对存在的问题进行了讨论和总结,并对今后研究内容进行了展望。     

Patterns of Forest Settlement in Western Thailand

Most studies of land settlement are concerned with planned schemes. This is despite the fact that unplanned settlement has more often been the major process by which agricultural land is settled in many countries. In this local study of spontaneous forest settlement in western Thailand, the recent history of two communities is traced in order to shed light on the process of settlement Common assumptions about frontier communities are examined critically. It is suggested that many aspects of the post-settlement community, in particular social differentiation, can best be understood in light of the process of settlement     

Large game, agricultural land, and settlement pattern change in the eastern Mimbres area, southwest New Mexico

The 12th-century depopulation of large villages in the Mimbres region of the US Southwest has been attributed to a number of causes, including resource stress. This study combines archaeological evidence and models of environmental conditions in the eastern Mimbres area of southwest New Mexico to assess the magnitude and timing of food stress from a combination of a period of reduced precipitation and the effects of prolonged hunting and farming activities on the landscape. Results indicate that large game in the area was quite sensitive to hunting pressure, and was locally depleted long before settlement reorganization occurred. Access to arable land was somewhat reduced around the time of settlement reorganization, but productive land remained locally plentiful. Although the settlement reorganization did not improve access to large game or arable land, farmers’ perceptions of below-average conditions for agriculture relative to their expectations and past experience would have contributed to decisions to move.     

A MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF FARM OUTPUT IN SELECTED LAND-REFORM AREAS OF JAMAICA

The claim of many that certain features of Jamaican land reform discourage optimum increases in farm output has been pointed out. To test the argument, seven land-reform features, which meet methodological, theoretical, and practical restrictions, have been examined. An hypothesis derived mainly from agricultural- economic theory about the linear relation between each of the seven features and farm output per acre has been devised. The hypotheses have been tested with a multiple regression analysis of data from six land settlements selected to represent a variety of geographic settings. The hypotheses have been partially upheld, but must be revised in the following form: (1) in many cases, particularly in the early years of production, farm acreage is negatively related to output per acre; (2) in subsistence areas, where great diversity in agriculture is common, greater diversification leads to greater output per acre; (3) in most cases where farmers live an appreciable distance from their holdings (at least 0.3 miles), output per acre is negatively related to the distance; (4) output per acre declines as the age of operator increases, but only if the operator is mainly dependent on his own labour, and only after a relatively advanced age (60 years, perhaps) has been attained; (5) the number of a farmer's dependents does not affect output (gross income per acre); (6) a farmer's non-farm income does not exhibit a negative relation to output per acre, and may be positively related if the outside income can be used to purchase productive farm inputs; (7) in some cases acreage of additional land used is positively related to output per acre on settlement properties. Hopefully, further research will lead to a more rational basis for the formulation of these hypotheses. Using the regression equations, estimates have been made of the changes in output per acre which could have been achieved with feasible changes in relevant factors. Estimates indicate that current farm output could have been greatly increased in some settlements, thus justifying some of the criticism of Jamaican land reform.     

An Iroquois frontier: the north shore of Lake Ontario during the late seventeenth century

Historical accounts and assessments of Lake Ontario's north shore during the late seventeenth century generally describe the area as an abandoned battleground and devasted “no-man's land”. The impression is built of English and particularly French views that this was an area no longer useful as a major source of furs. To the Iroquois the land was anything but devastated. Whereas they bypassed the territory in their constant search for furs to the north and west, the north shore, strategic and fertile, became a trading, agricultural, and even settlement frontier. A reassessment of the written documents and largely neglected maps of the period suggest that the Iroquois occupation of the north shore was highly ordered and based on traditional trade routes and tribal territorial claims. It was an extension of the homeland. But innovations in subsistence, settlement, and lifestyle did occur. The study of expansion to the north shore provides valuable insights into the delicate balance between the forces of change and continuity in post-contact Iroquois society.