ABSTRACT
The aim of soil management is the preservation of soil structure and fertility. As Cruickshank shows in his chapter, these are maintained, in the absence of human intervention, through the processes of nature. But agriculture disturbs the natural chain of events and good husbandry is needed to prevent soil deterioration and erosion. What constitutes good husbandry varies according to climate, topography and underlying geology. Agricultural practice is therefore a function of environmental conditions and historically humans have adopted a range of different strategies to maintain the soil in good condition. In tropical areas, for instance, the device of 'slash and burn' was used, whereby the soil is cultivated for a short time and then abandoned to allow fertility and structure to recover naturally. Fallow periods were also part of traditional agricultural practice in Europe, which evolved later into systems of mixed farming, with crop rotation, periods of temporary grass, and the return of animal waste to the land to maintain soil structure and fertility.
