SELF-SUFFICING FARMING 13 



barley, beans, peas, and, in smaller quantities, flax and 

 hemp. Roots or artificial grasses were entirely unknown. 

 Of grain crops rye was the chief; it is the hardiest, grows 

 on the poorest soils, makes the toughest straw. Rye was 

 then the bread-stuff of the peasantry, as it still is in 

 Northern Europe. It was generally mixed with wheat- 

 flour. Bread so made was called maslin.^ It retained its 

 moisture longer, and, as Moryson (' Itinerary,' temp. James 

 I.) says, was used by labourers because ' it abode longer 

 in the stomach and was not so soon digested with their 

 labour.' Wheat and rye were often sown together. Tusser 

 condemns the practice, ' lest rye tarry wheat till it shed as 

 it stand; ' but it prevailed in Yorkshire in 1797 as a cure 

 for mildew. By itself wheat was seldom sown. Barley 

 was the drink-corn, as rye the bread-corn, of the Middle 

 Ages ; drage ^ was the commonest and best sort for malting. 

 Oats were extensively cultivated in the north ; but they 

 were grey-awned, thin, and poor. The culture of vines is 

 often quoted to prove a change of climate in the England of 

 1888. But it must be remembered that wine was then 

 sweetened and flavoured with honey and spices ; it was 

 never drunk in its pure state ; and therefore no theory 

 can be founded upon the production of a liquid which may 

 have resembled vinegar in its natural state. Little manure 

 was used. In arable farms all the dung produced was 

 thrown on the ' infield ; ' the ' outfield ' was neglected. 

 The right of folding was valuable to lords of the manor 

 because their own land was thus enriched by the tenant's 

 flock. Horses were scarcely used in agriculture. Oxen 



' Lat. 'mixtilio.' Harrison, ' miscellin.' Yorkshire, 1797, ' mashel- 

 son.' In the ' Compleat Farmer ' (1760) it is called ' maislen ; ' but it 

 is said to be ' ill-husbandry ' to grow wheat and rye together. 



- Lat. drageum, dredge : bigge ; here barley. 



