LANDLORDS AND TENANTS 



The limitations and restrictions as to the crops 

 which could be grown, and as to the system of 

 crop rotation, were often of such a character as 

 to make them injurious to the interests of the 

 farmers. These regulations were likely to be of 

 such a character as would make it impossible for 

 the farmers to adjust their farming to the de- 

 mands of the times. In the Vale of Gloucester, 

 for example, where nearly all of the land was as 

 yet in the common fields, the tenants were re- 

 quired "to fallow the arable land, every third or 

 fourth year; according to the established course 

 of husbandry of the township." And again, "not 

 to sow hemp, flax, or rape seed on any part of the 

 premises. Nor, otherwise, to cross-crop; but to 

 sow the same corn and grain, from year to year, 

 according to the best and most usual course of 

 husbandry used in the respective townships." 1 



In writing on the subject of the restricting 

 clauses, generally found in the leases of his time, 

 Robert Brown says : "The restrictions imposed 

 during the time he occupies his farm, prevent the 

 farmer from changing his management, or of 

 adapting his crops to the nature of the soil he 

 possesses. Agriculture is a living science which 

 is progressively improving, consequently what 

 may be esteemed a good course of cropping at one 

 time, may, from experience and observation, be 



*W. Marshall, Rural Economy of Gloucestershire, Vol. I, 

 p. 25. 



297 



