Bumpy fields

In this part of the route, you see on one side remnants of the rounded fields while on the other side of the path the orchards are advancing. One is the symbol of the former Waasland, the other of the new northern Waasland. From turnip to pear we can conclude, agriculture is adapting to the new world …

A rounded field or bolakker is a field that slopes from the center. The effect was artificially created by a certain method of plowing and aimed to optimize drainage. By turning the soil inward towards the plot while plowing, these height differences were achieved. Archaeological research in the Flemish Waasland of the late medieval square rounded fields showed that these were created all at once. The lens-shaped plots were a few meters higher at the center than at the edge. Circular plowing maintained the rounding. This type of field was very common in Waasland, with 35,000 rounded fields counted here in 1950. The fields are surrounded by a ditch for drainage with brushwood on the bank side.

Rounded fields also occur around Menen and in the Kempen.

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