30 Manor-Farming 



without receiving any return from the hands of men, thus making 

 a gift to the lower grounds of the manure which the sheep leave 

 where they are folded for the night. The capacity of the vegeta- 

 tion on the downs for replenishing its store of nitrogen from the 

 air provides the chief source of manure for corn-growing in many 

 parts to-day. 



With this limited supply of manure, and with the help of 

 marl and chalk which even the original Britons had learned to 

 apply with advantage to different soils, the peasants grew their 

 corn. From the records which remain we know that the crops 

 were poor. There was not only the want of sufficient manure, 

 but the method of cultivation was bad. We may think that the 

 tilling of land is an easy thing, that it is enough to turn the soil 

 in any way so long as it looks red or brown. This is a mistake. 

 The difference between one kind of tillage and another may be 

 seen where farmers club together and each gives a day's ploughing 

 to a new neighbour. If twelve ploughs are worked on the same 

 day in the same field, clear differences will be seen in the crop 

 grown on the parts ploughed by different men and teams. 



Besides manure and tillage the kind of seed used is important. 

 During the thirteenth century English agriculturists became aware 

 of this. Whether it was monks, or merchants, or crusaders, men 

 who had travelled had brought into England rare kinds of grain. 



But in spite of all that they did in these ways the yield of 

 corn was low. Towards the end of the same century the average 

 amount of wheat grown on an acre was 9 or 10 bushels, of 

 barley about 15 bushels, and of oats about 14 bushels. Famine 

 visited the country once at least between 1314 and 1321, and 

 scarcity was often felt. 



Little is known about the quality of the live stock which 

 flourished on the manor. There was plenty of cattle, sheep, and 

 pigs, and most writers think they were very poor kinds. This 

 may be true if we compare them with our fine breeds o'f to-day, 



