Agricultural History Review, Volume 63 Part 2 (2015), pp. 265–285

Pre-industrial agriculture was largely based on local natural resources, which needed to be handled together with a variety of societal factors. In this study we use an unusually detailed Swedish farming priest’s diary to show interactions between ecology and society at the micro-level, and how they influenced the decisions and actions made by the household. The diary is analysed by using the conceptual framework of social-ecological systems (SES). We focus on years in the 1810s, when extreme weather conditions made the weaknesses and potentials of the agrarian system particularly visible through their impact on the production of hay and pasture. 

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