Introduction
| These current meadows, many of them plots of dry stone walls, have their origin in ancient artigues. |
| Formerly to gain farmland in the forest, trees and shrubs were cut and burned. Once the forest mass had been burnt down, the ash that spread the fertilizer was scattered. The artiga was cultivated for a short period of time, usually four or five years, until the soil was exhausted. Once abandoned, the land was allowed to rest until the vegetation grew again and the process was repeated. |
| This system, still valid in some places, was very used until the nineteenth century in mountainous areas of the Pyrenees. |
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