Wellmann Imre szerk.: A Magyar Mezőgazdasági Múzeum Közleményei 1971-1972 (Budapest, 1973)
Minchinton, Walter E.: The agricultural regions of England and Wales
ed. 21 In this case farms were grouped under 13 categories 22 and the resultant information was mapped on 10 kilometre squares. According to current critical standars both the method of constructing the map and the characteristics of the areas distinguished are objectively defined. But, as the authors themselves agree, a map based on fuller data using smaller squares would produce a more definite picture. From the map emerges a very simple picture of agriculture in England and Wales. Largely dictated by climate and topography there were three main farming types in England and Wales in the 1960s: dairying in the west, arable farming in the east and livestock rearing in the uplands of northern England and Wales with an important intermediate zone in central southern England where no single type of farming predominated. But, even this form of classification is not without its problems. It may also produce very large and unwieldy regions as geographical divisions do. For example, on the 1965 map a large part of the eastern part of England is classified as "general arable" while most of Wales is "rearing and fattening (cattle and sheep)". More serious is the problem of minority types within the areas, for example, if 59% of the farms in an area specialise in wheat and 39% specialise in milk while only 2% produce both, should the area be classified as arable, dairying or mixed? When appropriate weight has, however, been given to such reservations, is it not clear that the quantitative approach provides the best prospect of achieving a satisfactory classification of agricultural regions in England and Wales? Current concern with quantitative methods has inspired agricultural historians and historical geographers to attempt to use what statistical information is available in order to define agricultural regions in England and Wales in the past more precisely and accurately. Use is being made of the 1801 crop returns 23 and of probate inventories 24 for this purpose but so far the work is only piecemeal and on a small scale, casting a clearer light on farming in particular parts of 21 The methods employed for this survey were described by NAPOLITAN, L. and BROWN, C. J. A Type of Farming Classification of Agricultural Holdings in England and Wales according to Enterprise Pattern. Journal of Agricultural Economics XV: 1963. 595—616. The farming map is described by CHURCH. B. M., BOYD. D. A., EVANS, J. A. and SADLER, J. I. A Type of Farming Map Based on Agricultural Census Data. Outlook on Agriculture V: 1968. 191—196. 22 Four were arable: general arable, arable with horticulture, horticulture with general arable, and horticulture; three were mixed: arable with livestock, mixed farms, and livestock with arable; and six were livestock: dairying, mixed livestock (mainly dairying), rearing and fattening (cattle and sheep), mixed livestock (mainly rearing and fattening), pigs and poultry, and mixed livestock (mainly pigs and poultry.) 23 As far as arable areas are concerned, DAVID THOMAS has used J. C. WEAVER'S crop combination system (see WEAVER, JOHN C. Changing Patterns of Cropland Use in the Middle West. Economic Geography XXX: 1954. 15—47). See THOMAS, DAVID. The Statistical and Cartographic Treatment of the Acreage Returns of 1801. Geographical Studies V: 1958. 15—25. and: The Acreage Returns of 1801 for the Welsh Borderland. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 26: 1959. 169—183. 2'iHARWOOD LONG, W. Regional Farming in Seventeenth-Century Yorkshire. Agricultural History Review VIII: 1960. 103—124. — YELLING, JAMES A. The Combination and Rotation of Crops in East Worcestershire, 1540—1660. Agricultural History Review XVII: 1969. 24—43, and: Probate Inventories and the Geography of Livestock Farming: a Study of East Worcestershire. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 51: 1970. 111—127.
