DOCSLIB.ORG

Irit Ziffer the THRESHING FLOOR in REALITY and METAPHOR

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Irit Ziffer the THRESHING FLOOR in REALITY and METAPHOR ‰È‰˜· Èχ¯˘È‰ ÈÓ„˜‡‰ Êίӯ اﳌﺮﻛﺰ اﻻﻛﺎدﳝﻲ اﻻﺳﺮاﺋﻴﻠﻲ ﻓﻲ اﻟﻘﺎﻫﺮة BULLETIN the israeli academic center in cairo Irit Ziffer THE THRESHING FLOOR IN REALITY AND METAPHOR Dr. Irit Ziffer is curator of the Ceramics and Nehushtan (metals) pavilions at the Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv. She studied archaeology and ancient Near Eastern cultures at Tel Aviv University, where she received her Ph.D. in ancient Near Eastern art. She has curated, among others, the exhibits At That Time the Canaanites Were in the Land (1990); Islamic Metalwork (1996); O My Dove That Art in the Clefts of the Rock: The Dove Allegory in Antiquity (1998); The Corn Spirit (2002); and In the Field of the Philistines: Cult Furnishings from the Favissa of a Yavneh Temple (2007). Food reflects society. Bread, the mechanized technologies, howev- technologies, nothing changed in staple food of all humankind, has er, traditional practices are gradu- the production of our daily bread. become synonymous with the sus- ally being abandoned and becom- tenance of life, as so well reflected ing extinct, to be found only in The Threshing Floor in the Egyptian Arabic word aysh, descriptions in ethno-archaeologi- derived from the root 'yš, ”to live.” cal literature, and the tools they According to biblical descriptions, No wonder, then, that from its used are being sold off as romantic the harvested grain crop was early beginnings bread production relics of a dying tradition. brought to the threshing floor – was likened to human life, and The present discussion focuses gøren in Hebrew – where the grain each stage in grain husbandry be- on a stage in bread production that was separated from the chaff and came synonymous with a human is not often dealt with: threshing winnowed (Numbers 18:30; Ruth stage. Fecundity, procreation, and and the lore that evolved around 3:2). Legumes and small, delicate reproduction of the fields – and of the threshing floor. The interplay garden seeds were threshed there human life – belong to a timeless, of ethnographic descriptions with as well (Isaiah 28:27). boundary-crossing, instinctive tra- written sources and with visual The Hebrew root grn is cognate dition both in popular belief and in material from various periods with Akkadian g/qarãnu – ”to formal ritual. permits the reconstruction of a full stack up, pile on” straw, tribute, Ways of life in the Near East picture of how work was done on etc., or ”to store up grain, oil, have persisted since antiquity the threshing floor, from its earliest wealth, goods”1 – and its deriva- and can be traced in archaeology. beginnings – which can be traced tive magrattu, ”grain storage place, Living analogies help us under- in art to the second half of the threshing floor,” also the name of a stand ancient practices, and no fourth millennium BCE – through month.2 Another cognate is Arabic interpretation of the past can go the present day. In examining the jrn, ”crush, cut, grind,” from which beyond our consciousness learnt significance of the threshing floor derive the threshing surfaces jurn from the present. In other words, within the broad cultural frame- (Egyptian gurn), both the grinding ancient work methods, as depicted work of traditional Middle Eastern stone and the threshing floor. In in art and literature, can be recon- agriculture, biblical and ancient Arabic the threshing floor is also structed on the basis of surviving descriptions and terms may be called baydar, a loan word from traditional methods and customs, cited along with citations from Aramaic idra, as in Daniel 2:35: which, conversely, shed light literature and art from later peri- ”broken in pieces ... like the chaff on ancient visual and written ods, since, basically, until the in- of the summer threshing-floors material. With the adoption of troduction of modern mechanized [’idrey qayi].” ’Idra’ yields bit 2 3 BULLETIN of use granted to local peasants.6 In present-day traditional vil- lage societies with individual- ized cultivation and raising of livestock, each family that grows grain crops has its own threshing floor near the house, or near its plot of land if that is too far from the house, since it is easier to trans- port sacks of grain than bound sheaves of wheat or barley. The threshing floor is not plas- tered or paved with stones; it is a Fig. 1: Village threshing floors, Judea. Photo: David Amit. flat piece of land in a place where the ground dries quickly. Leveled from time to time with a wooden ’idrey – ”house of threshing”– and When fields were owned jointly board,7 it is kept clean and hard by thence bi darey, from which baydar by the inhabitants of a village, long use.8 After the bound sheaves derives in turn. These terms are a level rocky outcrop or a plot of of grain are brought to the thresh- land that could be leveled was set ing floor, their ties are undone, and aside as a threshing floor.4 Each the stalks of grain are spread over family was allotted a space on the circular threshing area. Thresh- the threshing floor, which could ing separates all the elements of the serve a village community for crop: The grains separate from the hundreds of years and was also hulls – the chaff – and the straw is used as a place of social gathering crushed. The crop can be threshed (Fig. 1).5 The public threshing floor by beating with a flail (Judges was also known in ancient times. 6:11; Ruth 2:17; Fig. 2). More usu- A fifteenth-century BCE document ally, however, it is done by draft from Nuzi mentions threshing animals, mainly young heifers that areas (magrattu) that were con- have not yet been trained to the tiguous to one another, with rights yoke (Hosea 10:11) and are guided Fig. 2: Agricultural scene. In the middle register farmers are shown winnowing with a winnowing fork and shovel, as well as by beating. In the lower register a scribe records the amount of grain delivered to the granaries. Egypt, Old Kingdom, 2575–2134 BCE. Collection of the Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem. also related to Akkadian adru, adratu, “threshing floor,” and also “fields” or “houses” in Neo- Assyrian.3 Two place names on the ancient southern border of the tribe of Judah, Addar (Joshua 15:3), and Hazzar-addar (Numbers 34:4; also mentioned in the Kar- nak lists of Pharaoh Shoshenq I, 945–924 BCE), also seem to be Fig. 3: Nineteenth-century threshing scene. From: C.W. Wilson, Picturesque Palestine, called after the threshing floor. Sinai and Egypt, London 1880, I, p. 201. 4 5 ‰È‰˜· Èχ¯˘È‰ ÈÓ„˜‡‰ Êίӯ اﳌﺮﻛﺰ اﻻﻛﺎدﳝﻲ اﻻﺳﺮاﺋﻴﻠﻲ ﻓﻲ اﻟﻘﺎﻫﺮة BULLETIN the israeli academic center in cairo around the floor with a goad, as away the bloodshed illustrated in Egyptian wall paint- and impurity of this ings from the New Kingdom; or house and carry them by means of a threshing sledge far across the sea.” (Hebrew: môrag) drawn by a team A finer sifting of of oxen, donkeys, horses, or cam- the grain from chaff els (Fig. 3); or sometimes by only and pebbles was one animal.9 done with a sieve or Most likely, the use of animal winnowing-fan power for drawing the threshing (Hebrew: na$pp$h, sledge dates to the second half of kˇeb$r$h). In the Uga- the fourth millennium BCE, when ritic Baal epic, the de- animals were first used to pull struction of the god a plow. In the ancient Near East Mot by the goddess and in the Bible, the crushing of Anat is depicted in the the crop by an animal's hooves or imagery of thresh- Fig. 4: Winnowing in the Hebron region. Photo: Yohanan a drawn implement symbolizes ing: Anat cleaves Ben Ya'akov. Man and His Work Collection, Eretz Israel distress, coming apart, and disin- Mot with a sword – Museum, Tel Aviv. tegration (Isaiah 21:10, 41:15–16; apparently a thresh- Amos 1:3; Micah 4:13; Habakkuk ing sledge13 – roasts his remains for God (Numbers 15:20, 18:27). 3:12). The same simile is found in in the fire, grinds them14 between When the Hebrew slave was set the annals of the kings of Assyria. millstones, and scatters them free in the seventh year, his master Tiglath-pileser III (744–727 BCE) in a field so that the birds will had to give him of his sheep and declared that he had “threshed eat them. In Mot's complaint goats, and of the produce of his [name] as with a threshing tool” to Baal, the afflicted god adds threshing floor and wine-press (k≠ma dayašti adiš).10 winnowing with a riddle or (Deuteronomy 15:14). During the The threshed crop is heaped up sieve to his misfortunes.15 In the Sukkoth (Tabernacles) festival, in one or more piles, and when a Hittite-Hurrian myth ”The Song the crops were brought from the favorable wind blows, it is win- of Ullikummi,” Kumarbi, the grain threshing floor and the wine-press nowed to separate it into its vari- god, tells his son: ”Let him chop (Deuteronomy 16:13), a combina- ous components. The best time for him fine like chaff. Let him grind tion that symbolizes all of human- winnowing is at night when gentle him underfoot (like) an ant. ... ity's food (Numbers 18:27; 2 Kings breezes blow, for strong winds may Let him scatter all the gods down 6:27). blow the seeds into the chaff (Ruth from the sky like flour.”16 Sieves 3:2). Winnowing is performed (or fans) for sifting grains (Arabic: Social and Religious Functions outside the threshing floor.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Progress of the Early Threshing Machine
    The Progress of the Early Threshing Machine By STUAR.T MACDONALD HKESHING was as basic to agricul- diffusion from Scottish origins; in many parts ture as agriculture was to the national of England the flail remained the dominant T economy. New crop rotations, better --sometimes fl~e only--means of threslfing manuring, and increased potential arable for the next half-century. "The thrashing of acreage may have produced more grain to be corn is performed in two ways; by manual sold at greater profit in the buoyant grain labour, as with the flail, and by mechanical market of the late eighteenth and early nine- means, as the thraslfing machine. The flail... teenth centuries, but the importance of the is still used in a great part of England to essential linking process--threslfing--seems separate the corn from its straw. ''s The ma- to have escaped comparable attention. Before chine was revolutionary in function com- the z78o's, the most efficient way of separating pared with the flail and in scale compared with grain from straw was to employ teams of men the size and cost of other farm implements. 6 throughout the winter months to hit the corn That such a keystone of revolution should with flails. The work was hard, it was dirty, prove invaluable to some and valueless to inefficient, slow, and at a time of rapid agri- others seems a matter of some interest and cultural change and some agricultural pro- importance and has provoked this enquiry. gress, primitive. Not until I7o°6 was a machine invented capable of relieving arable agricul- I ture from its annual epic drudgery.
    [Show full text]
  • Wind of Doctrine Threshing and Winnowing
    Wind of Doctrine Threshing and Winnowing PDF generated using the open source mwlib toolkit. See http://code.pediapress.com/ for more information. PDF generated at: Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:06:53 UTC Contents Articles Threshing 1 Winnowing 2 Threshing floor 4 Chaff 4 Harvest 6 Wheat 7 Epiphany (feeling) 23 References Article Sources and Contributors 25 Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 26 Article Licenses License 27 Threshing 1 Threshing Threshing is the process of loosening the edible part of cereal grain (or other crop) from the scaly, inedible chaff that surrounds it. It is the step in grain preparation after harvesting and before winnowing, which separates the loosened chaff from the grain. Threshing does not remove the bran from the grain. Threshing may be done by beating the grain using a flail on a threshing floor. Another traditional method of threshing is to make donkeys or An animal powered thresher oxen walk in circles on the grain on a hard surface. A modern version of this in some areas is to spread the grain on the surface of a country road so the grain may be threshed by the wheels of passing vehicles. However, in developed areas it is now mostly done by machine, usually by a combine harvester, which harvests, threshes, and winnows the grain while it is still in the field. The cereal may be stored in a threshing barn. A Threshing Bee is a festival held in communities to commemorate this process. The event is often held over multiple days and includes flea markets, activity booths, hog wrestling and dances.
    [Show full text]
  • Cass City H Onicl, E
    CASS CITY H ONICL, E. ..... ~o~ ,: -, Vol. 14, No. 6. CASS CITY, MICH.; FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 1918 ..... 8 PAGES l I ' l II llll I M ' l'!'l : 'i I '- "l'~l ' r ,, .... - , '~ ~ ., , . ~ ..~ W. S. DN[ ! Y" ~" A. ELyCT___OFFICERS.S '~flT II IN~r~ NHrN " plying ~omforts and delicacies to men tUliRiViril |ivrK tlinger long in their memories. ,,~,,,m,,,,L,~ v,,~,, ] ,'When will the war end? That's a [ "e andS:Lyre rtoepfgen Brought EFFOT'R the '~business meeting of the Y. mnt,mmmnr nm, n|nln[hard:'q uesti°n. If it depends on man ,P. A. held at the home of Miss Grace N[XTDDU)IIY I Meiser on Tuesday evening, the fol- IiiigflNi:F iiN Pfl~iNIpower it may be two or three years T°ge~her~by Lost Aviator" gl[J|~||~. U|| |~i|D~[bef0re the allies will be victorious. [IN DECORATIONDAYI , [lowifig officers were elected for the "' "~f ~he e~d ma~" come in si~ weeks ,en~uin~= six months: President, Alma Mark. trove been, ~IOOKIIIg '* for a fev ........oi.lA blOll" ~L. and Mrs. P. A. Koepfgen of Cass TUSCOLA COUNTY'S QUOTA HAS Vice President, Roy Striffier. W:. GORDON HIN~S, BACK FROM in Germany and Austria. I saw Ger- CLOUDS FAIL TO DARKEN THE City, had a happy meeting in France recentT~f ~~B0th ~young ~eh~are in the~:~ ~EEN INCRF~SED TO , ~Secretary, Stanley:Striffler. : :;;FRANCE,.GIVES HIS, OPINION man.) l?riso~rs, on .Apl~l. 9 who ~wp:re sPIRIT 0F PATRIOTISM ~. bdgs¢'~round their feet~{~ place of aviation service but in different com- " $557,380.
    [Show full text]
  • Optimum Cereal Combine Harvester Operation by Means of Automatic Machine and Threshing Speed Control
    Optimum cereal combine harvester operation by means of automatic machine and threshing speed control : LANDBOUWCATALOGUS 0000 0086 5713 m Promotoren: ir. A. Moens hoogleraar in de landbouwkundige aspecten van de landbouwwerktuigkunde alsmede de landbouwbedrijfsmechanisatie ir. O. H. Bosgra buitengewoon hoogleraar in de meet-, regel- en systeemtechnie k /^o11ö\,%t W. Huisman Optimum cereal combine harvester operation by means of automatic machine and threshing speed control Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor in de landbouwwetenschappen, op gezagva n de rector magnificus, dr. C. C. Oosterlee, hoogleraar in de veeteeltwelenschap, in het openbaar te verdedigen op woensdag 30 november 1983 des namiddags te vier uur in de aula van de Landbouwhogeschool te Wageningen. Abstract Huisman,W . (1983)Optimu m cereal combine harvester operation by means of automatic machine and threshing speed control.Doctora l thesis, Agricultural University,Wageningen . (xx+ 293p. , 156 figs,4 6 tables, 132 refs, app.,Eng . and Dutch summaries) The method bywhic h automation of agricultural machinery can be developed isillustrate d in the case of cereal combineharvesting . The controlled variables are machine forward speed and threshing cylinder peripheral speed. Four control systems have been developed that optimise these speeds on thebasi s of harvest costsminimisation ,whic h includes variable and fixed costs of the machine and those of machine- and timeliness losses. The evaluated systems make use of avaryin g number of input process variables and control the machine speed exclusively,o r both machine speed and threshing speed. The financial benefits from these control systems were calculated by means of a computer simulation. The research required in developing the models and control systems is discussed in detail.Th e simulation results demonstrate that control of low-frequency variations in croppropertie s brings some slightbenefi t and indicate that timeliness losses are of great importance to optimisation.
    [Show full text]
  • THRESHING FLOORS AS SACRED SPACES in the HEBREW BIBLE by Jaime L. Waters a Dissertation Submitted to the Johns Hopkins Universit
    THRESHING FLOORS AS SACRED SPACES IN THE HEBREW BIBLE by Jaime L. Waters A dissertation submitted to The Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Baltimore, Maryland August 2013 © 2013 Jaime L. Waters All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT Vital to an agrarian community’s survival, threshing floors are agricultural spaces where crops are threshed and winnowed. As an agrarian society, ancient Israel used threshing floors to perform these necessary activities of food processing, but the Hebrew Bible includes very few references to these actions happening on threshing floors. Instead, several cultic activities including mourning rites, divination rituals, cultic processions, and sacrifices occur on these agricultural spaces. Moreover, the Solomonic temple was built on a threshing floor. Though seemingly ordinary agricultural spaces, the Hebrew Bible situates a variety of extraordinary cultic activities on these locations. In examining references to threshing floors in the Hebrew Bible, this dissertation will show that these agricultural spaces are also sacred spaces connected to Yahweh. Three chapters will explore different aspects of this connection. Divine control of threshing floors will be demonstrated as Yahweh exhibits power to curse, bless, and save threshing floors from foreign attacks. Accessibility and divine manifestation of Yahweh will be demonstrated in passages that narrate cultic activities on threshing floors. Cultic laws will reveal the links between threshing floors, divine offerings and blessings. One chapter will also address the sociological features of threshing floors with particular attention given to the social actors involved in cultic activities and temple construction. By studying references to threshing floors as a collection, a research project that has not been done previously, the close relationship between threshing floors and the divine will be visible, and a more nuanced understanding of these spaces will be achieved.
    [Show full text]
  • CARPETS! New Gas Stove
    SHADOWED FOR WEEKS. JACK, THE BOY MISSIONARY. AN INTERESTING CLOCK. Ttu-eshiuc In Syria. QEMI-ANNUAL REPORT of the SILK FROM THE SPIDER. On the outskirts of each village ia a O.ToHNSTOWN SAVINGS BANK, May 31, A Baby Who Survived the Peril, of Cen- Its Maker Is Proud of It,but He lias No level space of ground of sufficient Bize to 1 HBO. A tral to at Lut In Wish to Make Another. assiw. Book Market LITERARY MAN'S PECULIAR EXPERI- Africa IJlo London. answer the requirements of the village value. value. DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAV OF PRO- a on estate.... $ ENCE A tablet to the memory of Little Jack, In the window of German jeweler which is known the name Loans real e#3 $ 375,739 9.1 DURING HIS VACATION.. by of the ba- cash la hunks .. as was called, DUCING QUANTITIES. on street, SR.S/5 90 337.575 no | the boy missionary, he Court Brooklyn, there stands yader, or threshing floor. Each farmer Cash on hand J4.4HS M 14 fSH 34 children, erected by Sunday school was a brass clock not more than ten inches and peasant has his own particular por- U. S. 4-per-cont. boons., lmt.ooo on J40.7W) 00 Bo Hud Committed No Crime, but n De- unveiled over Ids grave in Loudon. Lit- Johnstown water Co. The Method of Englishman Named high. Tho passerby who looks through tion marked off by a row of stones, and bonds..... 1ir.,00000 115,000 00 tective Followed 11 iin All Around?He tle was an Westmoreland Jack only 7 years old when he the window sees under the clock, which this portion is religiously handed down A Cam- | Didn't Know of It Until Four Years died.
    [Show full text]
  • Post-Harvesting Processing
    POST-HARVESTING PROCESSING Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations POST-HARVESTING PROCESSING 1.-Total post-harvest cereal system General information Each type of cereal requires a specific post-harvest treatment, however, there are certain general principles that apply to most of them. Cereals undergo a number of processing stages between harvest and consumption. This chain of processes is often referred to as the total post-harvest system. The post-harvest system can be split into three distinct areas. The first is the preparation of harvested grain for storage. The second, which is referred to as primary processing, involves further treatment of the grain to clean it, remove the husk or reduce the size. The products from primary processing are still not consumable. The third stage (secondary processing) transforms the grains into edible products. Primary processing involves several different processes, designed to clean, sort and remove the inedible fractions from the grains. Primary processing of cereals includes cleaning, grading, hulling, milling, pounding, grinding, tempering, parboiling, soaking, drying, sieving. Secondary processing of cereals (or 'adding value' to cereals) is the utilisation of the primary products (whole grains, flakes or flour) to make more interesting products and add variety to the diet. Secondary processing of cereals includes the following processes: fermentation, baking, puffing, flaking, frying and extrusion. Puffing. Puffed grains are often used as breakfast cereals or as snack food. During puffing, grains are exposed to a very high steam pressure which causes the grain to burst open. The puffed grains can be further processed by toasting, coating or mixing with other ingredients.
    [Show full text]
  • Threshing Idds Tanzania 2014 Project Abstract
    BEAN THRESHING IDDS TANZANIA 2014 PROJECT ABSTRACT CONTEXT BACKGROUND COMMUNITY DESCRIPTION 1 PROBLEM FRAMING STATEMENT PROJECT ABSTRACT The main objective of this project is to improve bean- threshing difficulties in the Mbulumbulu community in Tanzania. This project started with a four-day visit to the community where we identified different issues concerning bean threshing. During our visit we observed how bean threshing is done in the area, we tried threshing beans to know how it feels to do it and we asked them for reasons of threshing the way they do. We also conducted several interviews with members of the community and since they rely mainly on agriculture and beans are one the most profitable crops, there were a lot of identified issues concerning the bean threshing process, which include: back pain, expensive transportation, costly labour, production losses and difficult / time-consuming selection; all of which affects small-scale farmers’ profit. Due to these findings we decided to provide a solution that will help small-scale farmers increase their yield’s profit through a more efficient process. Therefore, we made different paper prototypes of a portable threshing machine and presented them to the community during our first visit. In our second visit, we went back with an incomplete prototype of a thresher and worked together with the community to finish it, which helped us get feedback necessary improvements that lead to the final prototypes. BEAN THRESHING IDDS 2014 TANZANIA CONTEXT BACKGROUND COMMUNITY DESCRIPTION Kambi ya Simba community in Mbulumbulu relies mostly on Within the hilly area to the west of Arusha, Tanzania lying within agriculture for both food and income.
    [Show full text]
  • Agriculture: a Glossary of Terms, Programs, and Laws, 2005 Edition
    Agriculture: A Glossary of Terms, Programs, and Laws, 2005 Edition Updated June 16, 2005 Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov 97-905 Agriculture: A Glossary of Terms, Programs, and Laws, 2005 Edition Summary The complexities of federal farm and food programs have generated a unique vocabulary. Common understanding of these terms (new and old) is important to those involved in policymaking in this area. For this reason, the House Agriculture Committee requested that CRS prepare a glossary of agriculture and related terms (e.g., food programs, conservation, forestry, environmental protection, etc.). Besides defining terms and phrases with specialized meanings for agriculture, the glossary also identifies acronyms, abbreviations, agencies, programs, and laws related to agriculture that are of particular interest to the staff and Members of Congress. CRS is releasing it for general congressional use with the permission of the Committee. The approximately 2,500 entries in this glossary were selected in large part on the basis of Committee instructions and the informed judgment of numerous CRS experts. Time and resource constraints influenced how much and what was included. Many of the glossary explanations have been drawn from other published sources, including previous CRS glossaries, those published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies, and glossaries contained in the publications of various organizations, universities, and authors. In collecting these definitions, the compilers discovered that many terms have diverse specialized meanings in different professional settings. In this glossary, the definitions or explanations have been written to reflect their relevance to agriculture and recent changes in farm and food policies.
    [Show full text]
  • Glossary of Agronomic Terms (Martin Et Al
    Glossary of Agronomic Terms (Martin et al. 1976) A Horizon The surface and subsurface soil that contains most of the organic matter and is subject to leaching. Abscission The natural separation of leaves, flowers, and fruits from the stems or other plant parts by the formation of a special layer of thin-walled cells. Acid soil A soil with a pH reaction of less than 7 (usually less than 6.6). An acid soil has a preponderance of hydrogen ions over hydroxyl ions. Litmus paper turns red in contact with most acid soils. Adventitious Arising from an unusual position on a stem or at the crown of a grass plant. Aerial roots Roots that arise from the stem above the ground. Aftermath The second or shorter growth of meadow plants in the same season after a hay or seed crop has been cut. Agrobiology A phase of the study of agronomy dealing with the relation of yield to the quantity of an added fertilizer element. Agronomy The science of crop production and soil management. The name is derived from the Greek words agros (field) and nomos (to manage). Aleurone The outer layer of cells of the endosperm of the seed. Alkali soil A soil, usually above pH 8.5, containing alkali salts in quantities that usually are deleterious to crop production. Alkaline soil A soil with a pH above 7, usually above pH 7.3. Ammonification The formation of ammonia or ammonium compounds in soils. Amylose The straight-chain fraction of normal starch. 106 Glossary of Agronomic terms Angiosperms The higher seed plants.
    [Show full text]
  • Spanish Agriculture: the Long Siesta, 1765-1965 Is the First Major Study in English of Spanish Agrarian History
    Spanish agriculture: the long Siesta, 1765-1965 is the first major study in English of Spanish agrarian history. James Simpson examines how traditional agriculture responded to population growth and the inte­ gration of commodity markets, emphasising both Spain's regional vari­ ations and its context in Europe. Simpson argues that decisive changes in farming techniques only occurred at the Start of this century~ leading n:!~i~~.2~J>.r:~dll_c~Vityand the start or,~~fl:I!lll~~og!;!LP~J.?l': ment ~_S)11!~!:£llJ>.!.~ULm_L~9l0~~d 1940~~_~n1~"E~"suming in the .• ~ 19508. He rejects arguments that slow giowtI1can be eJg?laiu!!ifTiY:tmor fes-OUJ:~~S or ineffiCIent farmers .. Indeed, farmerS were" quick to change when they had market opportunities (as was the case with olive oil, oranges and rice). By contrast, change was slower in those areas such as cereals where traditional technologies remained profitable. Simpson concludes that there were strict limits on absorbing labour in Spain's dry lands, and labour was retained in agriculture because of govern­ ment policies. Cambridge Studies in Modern Economic History 2 Spanish agriculture: the long Siesta, 1765-1965 Cambridge Studies in Modern Economic History Spanish agriculture: Series editors the long Siesta, Charles Feinstein 1 6 All Souls College, Oxford 1765- 9 5 Patrick O'Brien James Simpson The Institute of Historical Research, London Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Barry Supple The Leverhulme Trust Peter Temin Massachusetts Institute of Technology Gianni Toniolo Universita degli Studi di Venezia Cambridge Studies in Modern Economic History is a major n~ initiative in economic history publishing, and a flagship series f Cambridge University Press in an area of scholarly activity in whi, it has long been active.
    [Show full text]
  • The Losses in the Rice Harvest Process: a Review
    sustainability Review The Losses in the Rice Harvest Process: A Review Xue Qu 1,*, Daizo Kojima 1, Laping Wu 2 and Mitsuyoshi Ando 1 1 Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan; [email protected] (D.K.); [email protected] (M.A.) 2 College of Economics and Management, China Agricultural University, 17 Qinghua East Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, China; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: We review existing studies on rice harvest loss from the aspects of estimation methods, magnitudes, causes, effects, and interventions. The harvest losses examined occurred from the field reaping to storage processes, including threshing, winnowing, and field transportation. We find that existing studies on rice harvest losses have focused on quantitative losses in Asia and Africa. Lack of knowledge, inadequate harvesting techniques, poor infrastructure, and inefficient harvest management practices are considered critical contributors to the losses. The magnitudes and causes of rice harvest losses are now better understood than interventions, which have simply been presented but lack an assessment of the effects and a cost–benefit analysis. Interestingly, reduction in harvest losses may threaten some farmers’ profits, such as rural women who make their living from post-production manual operations. Considering the current status of the literature, future researchers should examine how to balance social and individual welfare since farmers are key stakeholders in intervention implementation. A good understanding of the existing researches can help clarify future efforts for loss reduction, thereby reducing the burden of increasing agricultural production and promoting sustainable development of resources and the environment.
    [Show full text]