Wat betekent ‘rabat’ en sinds wanneer leggen we bossen op rabatten?

Abstract

What is the meaning of ‘rabat’ and since when were forests planted on rabatten? ‘Rabatten’ (singular ‘rabat’) are elongated and rather narrow ridges between ditches. The soil from the ditches is used to raise the ‘rabat’. The method is used in forestry to obtain dry strips on which the trees are planted. The ditches are used for drainage and soil improvement seems to have played a role as well. The phenomenon occurs in many forested areas in the Netherlands, especially on the sandy soils in the South and East of the country. The earliest references to ‘rabatten’ in forestry date from the 18th century but early sources in which the phenomenon is explicitly mentioned are rare. In this article, we trace the history, meaning and use of the word ‘rabat’ as well as the history of these objects in forestry in the Netherlands. It appears that the word was first used with the meaning ‘plant bed, border’ in formal gardens. Dated examples of ‘rabatten’ in forestry which can be located date from the late 19th century but in a few rare instances it can be shown that actual ‘rabatten’ must date from before 1750. Thus, the phenomenon is certainly older than the use of the word with this specific meaning. It becomes clear that de semantic development of the word is exclusively Dutch and that the use of the word in forestry only took off since the second half of the 19th century.