ii] The Demesne. 1270 — 1307. 29 



by horses of the bondmen ^ A harrower was hired for three or 

 four months in the spring, when the land was being prepared for 

 oats, peas, and barley^. Tenants aided in driving the teams^ 



The wheat, oats, and barley were weeded by the tenants, usually 

 in July^ The tenants also reaped, bound and gathered all the crops^ 

 The harvest was carried from the fields by carter and tenants in 

 carts of the tenants as well as in those of the lord''. Tenants 

 also helped to stack the corn in the granary I The threshing seems 

 to have taken place in the grange or in the halF. In the earlier years 

 for which we have information the threshing was largely performed 

 by hired labour, but after 1280 it was almost entirely the work of the 

 tenants^ — a change which was advantageous to the lord, since the 

 money received from commuted labour dues did not equal the 

 threshers' wages. The winnowing was done by the tenants, with more 

 or less assistance from the daye. After it had been threshed the straw 

 was carried from the grange and stacked in the hall, or in the chamber 

 of the knights^ Much of the grain was sold in Norwich, whither it was 

 carried in the carts of the tenants, as well as in those of the lord^*'. 



The principal crop was barley. The yield was remarkably small. 

 According to the anonymous treatise on ' Husbandry ' the return 

 should have been eight-fold", but in 1280 it was less than two-and- 

 a-half-fold ; not infrequently it was over four-and-a-half-fold ; but 

 four-fold, or sixteen bushels to the acre, seems to have been 

 an average yield^-. In many years the issue from the field was 



^ Min. Acc'ts, 935/10, ' In terra hercianda de equis nativorum, vi. opera.' 

 2 Appendix VIII., xxxiii. ^ Appendix VIII., xxxix. 



* Appendix VIII., xL, Min. Acc'ts, 935/4, etc. ^ Appendix VIII., xl. 



" Appendix VIII., xli. 7 Appendix VIII., xl. 



8 1273. 240 quarters by hired labour. 69 quarters by the tenants. 

 1275. 260 ,, ,, 23 ,, ,, 



1278. 40 „ ,, 260 ,, ,, 



1279. 68 „ „ 248 ,, ,, 



1280. 140 ,, „ 125 ,, ,, 



1280. 'Memorandum quod de caetero nichil trituretur nisi per opera.' 

 ''1279. 'In stramine portando extra grangiani usque in aulani et in eodem stramine 



reportando extra aulani et extra cameras ad ponendum et tassandum in camera militum.' See 



also Min. Acc'ts, 935/8, 935/4. 



^0 Appendix VIII., xli. " Walter of Henley, (>(> and 70. 



^2 In the rolls of 1 290-1 306 the return of grain was noted. In the few cases where rolls 



of successive years are extant the return can of course be calculated by a comparison of the 



harvest of one year with the amount sown in the year preceding. 



