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Yes, mostly cleared with fire around the start of the Bronze Age for crop farming and livestock grazing. The soil's too acidic now to be good for much except lo
by mrec 9y ago
Yes, mostly cleared with fire around the start of the Bronze Age for crop farming and livestock grazing. The soil's too acidic now to be good for much except looking scenic.
Hipster Britain: we were Brazil before it was mainstream.
- Bromskloss 9y agoWhat has made it acidic?
- vram22 9y agoDon't know actual chemistry facts (rusty) but would not be surprised if it was the ash that did.
- FreeFull 9y agoAsh is alkaline, so it would make the ground more basic rather than more acidic.
- mrec 9y agoNot a field I know anything about, but you might try https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/57963.pdf https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/57963.pdf page 58
- gadders 9y agoI would guess the organic matter from thousands of years of growth. Normally organic matter rich soil suits ericaceous (acid loving) plants.
- mrec 9y ago> ericaceous (acid loving) plants Not to be confused with erinaceous (pertaining to hedgehogs) plants. Cacti, perhaps? English vocabulary can be weird.
- vram22 9y agoCan the acidity be reduced, maybe by some putting some alkaline additives in it? Had not come across this issue before (not an expert, just interested). Is it not technically feasible, or would it cost too much?
- bsder 9y agoQuite a few evergreen species are good at living in and reducing acidity over time (40-100 year timeframe). Replanting some evergreen trees is a way to help the forest kickstart recovery on old strip mine wreckage.
- vram22 9y agoGood to know, thanks.
- olau 9y agoIn Denmark, after a war where the southern part of Jutland was lost, a campaign started to farm the heath. There was a hard layer half a meter or so beneath the top soil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardpan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardpan so with deep plow or in many cases back-breaking work, the land was made fertile again. And yes, pulverized chalk is one of the methods used to raise the pH. It's not high-quality farming land, often too much sand and too little peat. Nowadays the little heath left in Denmark is usually protected. It'll usually turn to forest if left alone with no grazing.