Plagues

Partly worn-out heather in the Mildstedt nature experience area

Harvested heathland in the nature reserve Süderlügumer Binnendünen

A plagge ( Low German to plague ) is a cut piece of topsoil. Unlike turf , plagues mostly come from heaths (heather plagues) or forests (forest plagues). When Plagge stinging (also Plagge bat called) humus and rooted topsoil with parts of the thereon vegetation in about four to six centimeters thickness tapped.

Plagues were obtained in north-west Germany , Jutland and in the eastern Netherlands at least from the Iron Age to the middle of the 19th century, and in some cases until the 1930s, in the course of pest manuring on unused arable land. They were then mostly used as litter in the stables and applied with the manure as organic fertilizer, mostly on the ash corridors near the farm ( Plaggenesch ). These plagued areas have been significantly upgraded. Today plagues have been replaced by mineral fertilizers .

The regular loss of the topsoil on the plowed-up areas resulted in serious soil degradation ( foraging and erosion ). Heathland, which are under nature protection , are still partly plowed as a maintenance measure today. Since the heaths were created through overuse , this degradation is necessary for their preservation.

See also

• Heath farming

Web links

• Plagues in the juniper heaths of the Eastern Eifel
• Pest management and pest floors in Westphalia

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Till Kasielke: Late Quaternary Landscape Development in the Upper Emscherland , dissertation, presented at the Geographical Institute (Faculty of Geosciences) of the Ruhr University Bochum 2014, p. 166 ( PDF )