8 ORIGIN OF COMMONS. 



and other crops was inclosed and cultivated ; the 

 remainder was open to the cattle of all ; and all the 

 members of the community were entitled to cut turf 

 and bracken therefor their fuel and litter. The inclosed 

 part was generally divided into three great fields for a 

 three-course system of husbandry, of which one field was 

 in turn left in fallow. Each of these fields was divided 

 into a certain number of equal parts, which were 

 distributed annually by lot among the heads of families 

 constituting the village community. 



Very frequently the cultivated land was thrown 

 open to the cattle of all, after the completion of the 

 harvest, and until it was necessary to shut it off again, 

 in the following year, for the next crop. Small portions 

 of land w x ere attached as gardens to the houses and 

 homesteads of individual members, and acquired the 

 status of private property. Other portions were in- 

 closed from the open or common land, only as it became 

 necessary to add to the cultivated part, in consequence of 

 the increase of population. 



By degrees the individual ownership of land was 

 extended. The system of distributing the plots of the 

 common fields by lot was given up ; ownership in 

 these parts became fixed in individuals, subject to the 

 land being thrown open to the whole village after 

 harvest. But the waste and uncultivated land still 

 remained the common property of the community, and 

 was called the " Folk-Land " the People's Land. 



It is certain that a very large portion of the inclosed 

 part of England was in early times cultivated on this 



