32 Ma nor -Farming 



but we must not allow ourselves to imagine the cattle and sheep 

 of that day as weedy, ill-bred animals. The exports from England 

 to Germany early in the twelfth century included meat, fat 

 cattle, and fine wool, and from this time onward English wool 

 made itself a great reputation in the world. Merchants came 

 from Italy and from other countries to assist in building up a 

 great trade. To be recognized as the growers of the best wool 

 and as the breeders of some of the best cattle in the world was 

 a creditable thing. The Anglo-Saxons had a love and probably 

 a genius for breeding stock, and if their political and social 

 conditions gave them little encouragement, the land of England 

 with its fine grazing qualities in parts helped them. They never 

 lost spirit, and so long as an English farmer keeps his courage, 

 he and his land together can produce good live stock of every kind. 

 Life on the small farms was hard at times, as it is to-day. 

 William Langland describes it in the words of the small holder 

 in the Vision of Piers Plowman : 



1 1 have no penny, quoth Piers, pullets for to buy, 

 Nor neither geese nor grys, 1 but two green cheeses, 

 A few curds and cream and an oaten cake, 

 And two loaves of beans and bran to bake for my bairns 

 And yet I say, by my soul, I have no salt bacon 

 Nor no kokeney, 2 collops for to make. 

 But I have parsley and leeks, and many kale-plants, 

 And eke a cow and a calf and a cart-mare 

 To draw afield my dung, the while the drought lasteth. 

 And by this livelihood we must live till Lammas-tide, 

 And by that I hope to have harvest in my croft.' 



Piers was speaking in spring or early summer. He had run 

 short of money, and .apparently he had killed off all his poultry 

 and pigs. He had come to the bottom of his flour-barrel and 

 was thrown back on oatmeal, beans, and bran for bread. The 

 cow supplied the best part of the subsistence for the family, as 

 1 pigs. 2 A small egg. 



