12 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH RURAL HISTORY 



crops were then unknown : hence peas, beans, leeks, and 

 kale were the chief vegetables. Because of the absence 

 of root crops cattle could not be kept in large numbers 

 during the winter. It was, therefore, customary to kill most 

 of them and salt their flesh in readiness for winter food. 



Co-operative Cultivation. 



Agriculture was the most important business of the 

 people. Crops of wheat, rye, oats, and barley were grown, 

 though the proportion of wheat, compared with other 

 grains, was small. But the methods of cultivation were 

 very different from those now common. There were no 

 *' farms " and no " farmers " as we understand the terms. 

 Each village community was, as a whole, responsible for 

 the performance of agricultural operations. The land was 

 not the property of any single individual. It belonged to 

 the village or to the whole tribe, if it belonged to any one 

 at all. No one thought of private ownership. Each 

 villager occupied strips in various parts of the village. 

 There was land in plenty for every one, and there were no 

 labourers working for " wages." This simple co-operative 

 system of cultivation, known as " strip-farming " or the 

 " three field system," will be described in the next chapter. 



Each village was almost self-sufficing. For the most 

 part the clothes, the implements, and the food required 

 were produced in the village. In or near the homes of the 

 people the shoemaker, the carpenter, the iron or copper 

 smith carried on his work. Rough skin shoes, harness, 

 and leather drinking- vessels were shaped from hides. Plough- 

 share and wheel would be repaired by some one in or near 

 the village. Every home, too, contained its spinning- 

 wheel. The sheep's wool would be washed, carded, and 

 spun by the women. During the long winter afternoons, 

 when work out of doors 'was impossible, the men would 

 weave the rough yarn into the coarsest of cloth for tunic 

 and hose. For centuries, the clatter of the loom and the 

 whirr of the spinning-wheel were common sounds in rural 

 England. Packman or pedlar or wandering minstrel 

 would, from time to time, pass through the villages ; but 

 the inhabitants themselves seldom travelled far from home. 



The Governing Class. 



Whilst the people on the land were thus forming their 

 little communities, the governing classes were gradually 



