Agricultural History Review, Volume 55 Part 1 (2007), p. 141

With a title recalling US Department of Agriculture publications of long ago, this volume takes the position that soils have their own histories, both physical and human. Further, human histories of soil are both material and intellectual, intersecting with biogeochemistry as well as culture. Perception and (incomplete) understanding of soils and their dynamics are critical to rural decision-making and management. In historical perspective, changing comprehension of the soil resource is as challenging a pursuit as the inductive reconstruction of soil and erosional histories. The eleven chapters of this work explore both sides of that coin, and range across parts of six continents, making for a diverse and international menu.

To begin with an area of uncertainty, the contribution of Frank Uekoetter (Bielefeld) is an eye-opener to the rocky road of agricultural chemistry. Since the early 1900s, experts in Germany have continued to disagree as to plant nutrition and the application of mineral fertilizers; this has important implications for a range of issues, from industrial marketing pressures and the mixed response of farmers to expert opinion, as well as to organic farming, eutrophication, and sustainability. These tensions between popular and scientific ‘truths’ are still not fully resolved, as highlighted by the chapter on soil nutrient flows by Robert Shiel (Newcastle). Loading a soil with nitrates can exacerbate other management problems, such as reduced organic matter, poor soil structure, or leaching of nitrates into groundwater and rivers, not to mention proliferations of pests that require toxic pesticides. With an unusual range of experience in different environments and archaeological time ranges, as well as experimental projects, Shiel offers productive historical fare that should be made far more accessible. The use of crop rotation, manuring, and liming greatly improves crop yields – in combination with mineral fertilizers, which opens important, objective vistas on the long-term benefits of ‘organic farming’.

The wide-ranging analysis of Verena Winiwarter (Vienna) examines the classical and medieval authors, to explicate a history of information and ideas. Her scholarship is impeccable, but not always sufficiently critical and cross-disciplinary. For example, the much-vaunted Piero di Crescenzi was not original, in part copying directly and without attribution from Albertus Magnus, whose own seventh book displays little innovation beyond a reworking of Palladius. But Wandalbert of Prüm (ad 848) is more important than his contemporaries because he successfully converted the agricultural calendars of the Roman authors into a calendar based on the regional ecology of the lower Rhine, predicated on different soils, climate and crop varieties, and an emphasis on the fencing of fields, stalling of animals, spreading of manure and cutting of hay.

The Islamic agronomists were much more than a foreign curiosity. They had developed Galenic humoural theory as a conceptual framework to explain how organic fertilizers and mineral remedies were used to temper or reinforce natural soil properties – ‘doing right for the wrong reasons’. They also set up royal experimental gardens and engaged in regional agricultural ‘development’. Their influence inspired later Castilian writers, such as G.A.Herrera, and the 1751 Spanish translation of Jethro Tull included two chapters from Ibn al-Awwam, who in turn was resurrected by the French colonialists in Algeria (K.W.Butzer, ‘The Islamic traditions of agroecology’, Ecumene 1 (1994) pp.7–50; Id., ‘Environmental history in the Mediterranean world’, J.Archaeological Science 33 (2005), pp.1773–1800). The Roman authors also happen to be a major source for social history, and offer clues for the development of market gardening. Last but not least, there are hints in Theophrastus that ongoing rural innovations in his day informed the elite writings on agronomy, suggesting the possibility that such works recorded rather than proscribed changes in agrarian practice.

Against this background of ideas in agronomy we can now turn to the six historical chapters on soils in the landscape. Andreas Mieth and H.R.Bork (Kiel) address the ecological degradation of Easter Island, demonstrating the initial use of slash and burn agriculture by sedimentary profiles. As productivity declined, more and more work was invested in amelioration, beginning with organic mulching, and later the addition of charcoal and ash; soil protection by stone mulching at the surface was attempted as sheet and wind erosion accelerated in the wake of devegetation. These labour-intensive methods continued to be practised until the end of the Polynesian period, contrary to the popular narrative of thoughtless human misuse.

Tim Beach (Georgetown), Sheryl Luzadder-Beach (George Mason) and Nicholas Dunning (Cincinnati) offer an extensive and careful review of prehispanic soil erosion and terracing efforts in Mesoamerica and the Caribbean islands. They emphasize distinct patterns of clearance or post-abandonment impacts, or of recovery, in contrasting environments or among different prehistoric communities. A second article, by Luzadder- Beach and Beach, focuses on the interplay of soils, water and indigenous practices in New World wetlands. They highlight raised or ridged fields, chinampas, flood recessional cultivation, and problematic networks of drainage canals, bringing closure to some festering controversies. The range and scope of human soil and land manipulations so identified will serve as a benchmark for future research.

Kate Showers (Lesotho and Sussex) attempts a comprehensive soil history of Africa, discussing indigenous ‘soil knowledge systems’, livestock management, agricultural production in different biomes, soil conservation efforts, urbanization and mining prior to European intrusion. This superb canvas is then contrasted with the widespread environmental damage resulting from colonial practices and policies. While correct in general terms, concentrated indigenous populations in earlier times also created soil erosion problems (K.W.Butzer, ‘Rise and fall of Axum, Ethiopia: a geo-archaeological interpretation’, American Antiquity 46 (1981), pp.471–95). The role of the recent demographic transition therefore cannot be ignored in assessing contemporary problems, unless of course we ‘blame’ the colonialists for that population growth.

Exploitation and conservation of soil on the Indian subcontinent is considered by R.J.Wasson (Darwin), who assembles a welcome panoply of indigenous concepts, and then constructively outlines the evolution of environmental measures and understanding after colonial intrusion. The same author also treats post-contact Australia by means of three current case studies that usefully illustrate processes, responses, and feedbacks.

Although the chapter organization is annoyingly obscure, the editors have assembled a significant book, that is both informative and thought-provoking. It will be welcomed by environmental historians and many other constituencies, including ecologists, geographers, and agronomists.