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Fields of study
Plant ecology, systematics
Estabrook home page
Graduate student
Nicole Maturen
News
Sheep’s surprising role in traditional farming
During the last several centuries, traditional farmers in the high granite mesas in eastern Portugal south of the Douro river invested great effort to tend a large number of sheep. This is in spite of the fact that the sheep produced very few lambs, little milk, low quality wool, and were not eaten. Professor George Estabrook’s research reveals why these farmers invested great effort in caring for so many sheep, reported in the spring/summer Journal of Ethnobiology.
Estabrook writes Economic Botany cover story
Professor George Estabrook’s article “Neither Wild nor Planted: Essential Role of Giesta (Cytisus, Fabaceae) in Traditional Agriculture of Beira Alta, Portugal” was the cover story in the December 28, 2006 issue of Economic Botany, page 307.
Estabrook provides an account of an ancient agricultural system that farmers have used to keep the land sustainable for some 800 years. Farmers encourage the woody plant giesta (a nitrogen fixer) to restore the soil’s nitrogen. This practice has made it possible for them to grow rye, the main cereal crop there since at least the year 1200. Much of the soil’s nitrogen is carried off in the rye’s proteins, which is sold in cities to feed the urban population. Farmers harvest and bury the geista in the cultivated soil to restore its fertility.
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