Ewa Krasinska - Ryszard Kantor: Derenk és Istvánmajor (Borsodi Kismonográfiák 31. Miskolc, 1988)
What is more, the obtained material was the basis of the reconstruction of the most essential sections of material culture. The study of these phenomena is the point of departure for the understanding of the character of the camiunity under investigation and of the mechanisms of changes in the social and economic structure. It is not possible, however, to reconstruct all the sections of culture in Derenk. Years of living in an area completély different from the previous one, together with the constant intensification of the contacts with the Hungarian surrounding (mainly because of taking up jobs in industry and through the mixed marriages) brought about considerable loss of the knowledge of the past. It is especially observable in these aspects which must be analyzed on the basis of the preserved products, such as architecture, interior decorations or the folk costume. The information about such things was rather far from being detailed. A lot of attention was paid to agriculture as the main branch of economy - the systems of cultivation of the cereals in Derenk were reconstructed, as well as chemical and mechanical cultivation of the soil (fertilizing, ploughing, harrowing, wowing, cultivation of crops, harvesting, carting, threshing, ways of storing the grain, mills) , kinds and ways of cultivation of the root plants (potatoes, cabbage, turnip, turnip-rooted cabbage) , vegetables, the variety of fruit-trees and the utilization of their fruits, the cultivation of the plants for scything (clover, lucerne) , kinds of the sown industrial plants (hemp, flax, poppy-maize) , etc. The present book also discussed breeding of animals in Derenk, the intensity of which was conditioned by the feeding-stuff possibilities of the particular farms. First of all, the description was presented of the village meadow and pasture economy (the kinds of meadows and pastures and the ways of using them) , and also of one of the additional possibilities of obtaining the products for animal breeding, namely forest gathering. Also the factors were presented which conditioned the breeding of the particular breeds of animals (oxen, horses, cows, pigs, poultry, bees, pigeons, and the like) , the care of the animals, the advantages of animal breeding for the farms, etc. The description also included shepherding, since, according to the records, the economy of Derenk was based until the year 1880 on the soil-cultivation and shepherding. Apart from the soil-cultivation and animal breeding, an important 140
