Boeren op het Drentse zand 1600 - 1900 : een nieuwe visie op de `oude' landbouw

This study reveals the character of farming mainly in the es-dorpen (open-field villages) area in the Dutch province of Drenthe from the 17th century onwards. It shows the change farming went through after the end of the 17th century, when a former extensive type of arable farming with a large number of cattle and horses became more specialized in rye cropping. A scissor-like movement of prices and costs (heavy taxations) forced farmers to intensify their production, and the numbers of cattle and horses decreased. An increasing demand for livestock and livestock products (butter and pork) again caused a fundamental change in farming after the 1840's. A new labour-intensive type of farming offered a basis for existence for part of a fast- growing rural population, which before had had to find a living in the margins of agriculture. At the end of the 19th century a further intensification and specialization of this improving type of farm took place.