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In the development of land reclamation, the influence of the agrarian conjuncture is recognizable. In both developments a long period of growth was followed in the middle of the 17th century by a century of stagnation, to give way to a new period of growth in the second half of the 18th century. Most of the land reclamations were on a small scale, being the work of local farmers who gradually extended their arable land on former heathland. Land reclamation led to the emergence of rings of small enclosures around the open fields. Locally there were also larger reclamations by rich capitalists and landlords. Biesselt (near Mook) is the only example of a planned `heathland colony'. The growth of population and economic activities led to a growing pressure on the surviving commons. The end of the the 18th century saw the first successful new forest plantations. Peat excavation, which was carried out for private use already during the late Middle Ages, gradually increased in scale and became more commercial.