State Agricultural Society. 265 



and bitter bread, during the Middle Ages, with little motive for self- 

 improvement or that of his lands. The plowman, shepherd, and swine- 

 herd belonged to the soil, and fishermen were rented and sold with the 

 fisheries where they were employed. The cottager's house was a thatch 

 covered hut, chinked with mud or clay, without chimney, window, or 

 floor. A hide dressed with the hair on, swung like a hammock, served 

 him for a bed; there were no mills except those operated by hand. ' He 

 was his own tailor, tanner, and clothier. The kit of a blacksmith con- 

 sisted of four pieces; a carpenter's of six. There was no division of 

 labor. The plow, a pick, a clod breaker, spades, sickles, and baskets for 

 winnowing grain, comprised the list of agricultural implements. 



The allowance of the laborer was two herrings a day, a loaf of wheat 

 or barley bread, and milk from the manor house, with which to make his 

 cheese. 



Twenty years after the accession of William, the Conquerer, nearly 

 the whole territory of England had been wrested from its original pro- 

 prietors and given away, making the condition of the agricultural popu- 

 lation even worse than before. Still the art of agriculture progressed, 

 thanks to the Monks, and the proportion of freeman increased in conse- 

 quence of the necessity for handicrafts which required intelligence and 

 skill. By the year thirteen hundred and seventy-six, forty-eight " mys- 

 teries of labor," as the various employments of saddlers, brewers, 

 masons, etc., were called, had been established in London and were 

 strongly organized into guilds and fraternities. But the laws strictly 

 forbade the teaehing of any mystery to a husbandman or the son of a 

 husbandman. The mechanics having achieved an aeknowledged politi- 

 cal position as free subjects of the Crown, the agricultural serfs showed 

 signs of following their example. A statute of the First Richard (thir- 

 teen hundred and seventy-seven) is made "at the grievous complaint of 

 the Lords and Commons of the realm, that in many parts the villains 

 who owe services and customs to said Lords have of late and do daily 

 withdraw their services, and affirm them to be utterly discharged of all 

 manner of servage, due as well of their body as of their said tenures, and 

 will not suffer any distress or other justice to be made upon them, and 

 which more is, gather themselves in great routs, and agree by such con- 

 federacy that every one shall aid the other to resist their Lords with 

 the strong hand." 



The memorable request of such a confederacy, headed by Wat Tyler, 

 "for the abolition of slavery for themselves and their children forever, 

 for the reduction of rent, and the privilege of buying like other men in 

 fairs and markets," resulted in the addition of insult to the injuries of 

 this long-suffering class. "Rustics ye have been, and are," the King 

 told them, " and in bondage ye shall yet remain — not sueh as ye have 

 heretofore known, but in a condition incomparably more vile." From 

 that time it was enacted that all persons who had been emplo} x ed in 

 any labor or service of husbandry until the age of twelve, should from 

 henceforth abide at the same labor, and be incapable of being put to 

 anj T other business. 



The evil effects of this irrational discrimination exercised towards 

 agricultural industry, were not confined to the farming class, nor to 

 England alone. Tenanc} r at will and tenant rights are more serious 

 matters for English statesmanship to deal with now than they were 



34_(agri) 



