ABSTRACT
Farming represents by far the most extensive land use in Western Europe, and any view of geography which emphasizes the study of the landscape must recognize the importance of this ‘rural space’. Large parts of the European rural landscape have been almost totally humanized by 2000 years of continuous cultivation – even longer in the more spatially restricted oecumene of ancient Greece. For the rural geographer with a historical bent, Western Europe still offers a fascinating mosaic of agrarian regions whose ‘personalities’, particularly in France, Portugal, Spain and Italy, still reflect the genres de vie so dear to the heart of Vidal de la Blache. With such a prolonged backdrop of settled agriculture, it is small wonder that farming systems are so complex and varied. Primeval landscapes are rare.
