Assarting as a factor affecting culture and the shaping of the landscape in Northern Europe and Estonia

Assarting has been the first stage of land cultivation all over the world, and has retained its importance even after agriculture became the primary means for subsistence: the burning of woodlands and brush wood to obtain arable land and also burnbeating for fertilising arable land can be found in broad areas from the Red Indian cultures of North America to the tropical cultures of Africa and Southeast Asia. This means of subsistence has been particularly important in the conifer and mixed forest belts of Northern and Eastern Europe, but also in the northern parts of Asia among tribes that still practice nomadic herding. Assarting really rose to prominence as the primary means of subsistence alongside hunting and fishing in the very sparsely populated conifer forest zone in Russia, Finland and the central part of Scandinavia, where assarting evolved into a large-scale and productive system as long as it was the only form of using woodlands. The initial form of assarting was the clearing and burning of broadleaf woodlands that took place on a relatively small scale. The other much more complex and demanding form of assarting was the burning of conifer woodlands. The ash of conifer forests has particular qualities and cultivated plants grow differently there. There are several different viewpoints concerning the origin and age of conifer forest assarting. This method most likely spread to Finland from the east either in the late or early Middle Ages, yet this was not a fully developed method. Instead, it continually evolved in accordance with local conditions and took shape in the form that it is best known in Savo, spreading from there to Northern Finland, Sweden, Norway and even to North America. The prerequisite for assarting in Estonian territory was extensive woodlands on soil that is suitable for growing grain. Possibilities for assarting were very limited in Northern and Western Estonia because the soils there were unsuitable for assarting. On the other hand, the possibilities for assarting in Southern Estonia were considerably more favourable and assarting was the primary method for utilising brushwood in that region. Large-scale assarting of virgin forests was an old method in Estonia as well, yet when cultivation became generally prevalent, it dwindled to the burning of broadleaf woodlands near villages. It is possible that assarting in conifer forests became known in Estonia in association with the extensive immigration of Finns in the first half of the 17th century to areas that had been depopulated by war, famine and the plague. At that time, assarting was of vital importance in restoring and extending farm fields and the fields of manor estates that had in the meantime become covered with woods. Even though assarting continued in the latter half of the 17th century as well, the expansion of settlement, the strengthening of the manor estate system and restriction of the free use of the forests limited its use. Opportunities for assarting differed widely in Southern Estonia because large areas suffered from an excess of moisture. Large areas were covered by bogs in the Pärnu kreis (district) and woodlands suitable for assarting were to be found primarily in the parishes of Halliste, Karksi and Helme in the southern and eastern part of that kreis in the 1680's. In the Tartu kreis, the importance of brushwood fields was greatest in sparsely populated densely forested areas, primarily in the parishes of Rõuge and Vastseliina. In many regions, manor estates and farms lacked opportunities for further assarting and burnbeating. Growth in the density of settlement, expansion of the surface area covered by long-cultivated fields, the economic strengthening of the manor estates, and increasing regulation of the use of woodlands started restricting assarting and made it possible to use it more extensively only in a very limited area primarily in the southeastern part of Southern Estonia.