12 THE MANORIAL SYSTEM 



wandering bands of " cockers " or harvesters, who had already begun 

 to travel the country at harvest time. A cook, brewer, and baker 

 were hired to supply dinner at nine and supper at five. Reapers 

 were organised in bands, or "setts," of five. The anonymous author 

 of Hosebonderie ^ (thirteenth century) calculates that each band 

 could reap and bind two acres a day. Barley and oats, as well as 

 peas and beans, were generally mown ; rye and wheat were reaped. 

 But the reaping, as in Roman times, seems to have consisted of 

 two operations : the first was to cut the ears, the second to remove 

 part of the straw for thatching, or to be used as forage for cattle, 

 as fitter for strewing the sheep-house, folds, and yards, or as bedding 

 for men. Often the value of the straw of thin short corn hardly 

 paid for the expense of removal, and the stubble was either grazed 

 or burned on the ground, or ploughed in. 

 f The most important crops of the farm were the corn crops of 

 / w heat, rye, and barley, w hich were raised for human food and 

 I drink. Their consumption, especially if the lord of the manor 

 ' Hved on the estate, was enormous. Dome stic households were 

 considerable, and often only t he baififf was paid money wage s. 

 Jlations were alsg_ajlowed to tenantswhen performing many of 

 ! thei r servi ces. Though the manual and team work of the tenants 

 provided most of the labour of the farm, t he lord a lso employed 

 a_large permanent staff of agricultural servants, most of whom were 

 occupied in the care of live-stock. Such were the horseman or 

 waggoner, oxherd or ploughman, cowherd, shepherd, swineherd, 

 warrener, and keepers of hawks and dogs, whose wages were mostly 

 paid m kind. There were, besides, other servants in husbandry, 

 hired for special occasions, whose food and drink formed a large 

 portion of their payment. The granary was, therefore, rarely so 

 full that any surplus remained for sale. For such ready-money as 

 h e nee ded^ the lord looked mainly to the £roduce of his liye;stock. 

 For their consumption were growii the remaining crops — the hay, 

 beans, peas, and oats ; though oats were not only used for human 

 food, but in some districts were brewed into inferior beer. 



Horse-farms appear in some estate accounts ; but they probably 

 suppHed the " great horse " used for mifitary purposes. On an 

 ordinary farm the horses used for farm- work were mostly home- 

 bred, and were divided into cart-horses, and — under the names of 

 stotts, " affers," or " avers " — plough-horses. Colts, not needed 

 ^ Hosebonderie in Walter of Henley'' s Husbandry, ed. E. Lamond, 1890. 



