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#118061 12/22/03 03:33 PM
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This seems strange to me. I'm sure everyone else already knew it.

From merriam-webster online
Main Entry: 4fallow
Function: adjective
Date: 15th century
1 : left untilled or unsown after plowing
2 : DORMANT, INACTIVE -- used especially in the phrase to lie fallow <at this very moment there are probably important inventions lying fallow>

I'm familiar with this definition. Here's the one that surprised me:

Main Entry: 3fallow
Function: transitive verb
Date: 15th century
: to plow, harrow, and break up (land) without seeding to destroy weeds and conserve soil moisture

It seems not contradictory, but also inconsonant.

After one fallows the ground it is no longer fallow.
Comments anyone?

k



#118062 12/22/03 03:47 PM
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>After one fallows the ground it is no longer fallow.

not so; after one fallows the ground, one by definition lets it lie fallow.

left... unsown after plowing

to plow... without seeding





#118063 12/22/03 03:52 PM
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I guess I'm a little confused about the part of the definition that goes "left untilled or..."


k



#118064 12/22/03 04:03 PM
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If we take this through the term till:

To prepare (land) for the raising of crops, as by plowing and harrowing;

it does seem a little inconsonant, but, if we go on in the defintion past that semicolon and see

cultivate

perhaps it's not so inconsonant after all. Leave out that critical step of planting the seed and you haven't done much of a job of cultivating.

http://www.bartleby.com/61/42/T0214200.html


#118065 12/22/03 04:16 PM
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A couple hundred years ago, raising crops depleted plant nutrients. So a crop of grain might be followed by a year
of legumes which restored some of the nitrogen, but not enough to immediately plant grain. So a year of growin only grass might accumulate enough nitrogen from rains to permit
growing grain again. And part of the nutrients in the weeds would have been returned to the soil.


#118066 12/22/03 07:21 PM
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jewish law required field to have a 'sabbath' just as man did, you could plant a field 6 years out of 7, on the seventh year, it had a 'sabbatical'-- and was given a rest.

sabbaticals were required for other things too...like cows, and goats, and sheep the were used for milk and for edible young.

cows need to 'freshen' to give milk --(ie, they have to bear a calf every 2 year or so)-- after 6 calfs-- a cow had to be 'given a rest'-- and allowed to go a year with out having a calf. (which is really almost impossible, since few cows would live to be 15 or 16 years old (2 years before first calving, and 6 calved (each takes 9 months, just like a human) and 2 years of giving milk...

but it might have been applied to sheep (sheep milk is also collected for cheese and consuption) and goats...

How long do sheep live in captivity Dr Bill (or Capfka?) i love how sheep look, but really know very little about them (compared to cows--and i only know a smidgeon about cows..)




#118067 12/22/03 07:57 PM
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Dear of troy: I had five kids in 4H because my wife had not been allowed to have any animals when she was a kid. I got to pay for the feed and build things, and the shovelling out, but I didn't keep the records.


#118068 12/23/03 01:10 AM
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k, AHD (via Gurunet) might help:
fal·low (făl'ō)

adj.
1. Plowed but left unseeded during a growing season: fallow farmland.
2. Characterized by inactivity: a fallow gold market.

n.
1. Land left unseeded during a growing season.
2. The act of plowing land and leaving it unseeded.
3. The condition or period of being unseeded.

tr.v., -lowed, -low·ing, -lows.
1. To plow (land) without seeding it afterward.
2. To plow and till (land), especially to eradicate or reduce weeds.
[Middle English falow, from Old English fealh, fallow land.]

Now--is that OE word fealh related to fealty?



#118069 12/23/03 01:32 AM
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is that OE word fealh related to fealty?

Nope. Fealty is from Old French and, ultimately, Latin fides, faith.

http://www.bartleby.com/61/2/F0060200.html



#118070 12/23/03 12:53 PM
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1. Plowed but left unseeded during a growing season: fallow farmland.


That makes more sense.

k



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