十六、十七世纪江南的生态农业(下)

The Ecological Agriculture in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Jiangnan

在十六、十七世纪的江南农业中 ,出现了一种新经营方式。这种经营方式体现了今日我们所说的生态农业的主要特点 ,通过改造资源 ,进行多样化的生产 ,同时利用食物链原理 ,对废物进行循环利用 ,从而降低了投入而增加的产出 ,达到了较高的生产率。这种生态农业最早出现在明代中期常熟的大经营中 ,明清之际时在嘉湖一带已相当普遍 ,并为小经营所采纳。这种生态农业在江南平原逐渐普及 ,为江南农业的发展起到了积极的作用。

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a new style of management appeared in Jiangnan. This management embodied major features of modern ecological agriculture, including transformation of agricultural resources, divergization of production activiites, circular utilization of wastes based on the foolink principle, and so on. This management, reducing inputs and increasing outputs, achieved a higher productivity. This early typle of ecological agricture appeared first in some big farms in Changshu County in the mid-sixteenth century and was adopted widespreadly by small farmers in the Hang(zhou)-Jia(xing)-Hu(zhou) Plain during the following century. The prevalence of the management played an important role in agricultural development in pre-modern Jiangnan.