What is Flurbereinigung?
{{Orphan|date=April 2008}} {{nosources|date=April 2009}} '''Flurbereinigung''' (pronounce: FLOOER-be-rye-nee-gung) is a word used in [[Germany]] to refer to the rearranging of [[field]]s in [[agriculture]]. During the second half of the [[20th century]], Flurbereinigung led to major changes in the [[landscape]] in the German [[countryside]]. == History == Many German [[farmer]]s used to have several small fields which were not together but were in different places, some of them maybe two or three miles away from where they lived. This was particularly a [[problem]] in the area to the left of the [[Rhine]] which had been ruled by [[Napoleon]], because in the [[19th century]], when a farmer and his wife had died, their land was shared between all their children, so it got divided into smaller pieces. In other parts of Germany only the eldest son inherited the land. Since the 1960s, people understood that it would be much easier for a farmer to have all his fields together so that he did not have to keep making journeys between lots of small fields. Larger fields are easier to manage and more economical. The German [[government]] encouraged farmers to swap some of their fields among themselves so that each farmer had his land all in one place. In the last few years the government have realized that the way the changes have been made are not always good. [[Nature]] often suffers when [[hedge]]rows are taken away to make fields bigger. Flurbereinigung today tries to keep some of the hedgerows and small groups of [[tree]]s which sometimes stand in the middle of fields. They are good places for [[bird]]s to [[nest]] and other [[animal]]s like to live there, too. [[Winegrower]]s do not always find it a good thing to have all their land together. This is because the [[soil]] in one field may be slightly different from the soil in a field just farther up the road, and this gives the [[wine]] a slightly different taste. Also, if all their land is on one hillside and a [[storm]] hits that hillside and ruins the crops,