SKETCH OF MODERN AGRICULTURE 



37 



labor from that of another. But when ground began to be cleared 

 and crops to be sown and harvested, it easily became possible 

 to make this distinction. They who had been most diligent 

 and most intelligent in their work would secure the most abun- 

 dant crops, and they would naturally be unwilling to share their 

 harvests with their less industrious neighbors. Thus it came 

 about early in the historical period in Europe, particularly in 

 England, that there was no communistic sharing of crops, 

 though the land was still held in common. 



Either before or soon after the development of the system of 

 individual crops, it is not known which, the system of com- 

 mon property in herds gave way to that of private property, so 

 that the modified form of communal farming which was coming 

 into use at the beginning of the historical period was after the 

 following description. 1 At some favorable spot in the township 

 would be located the village. Near this village would be located 

 the cultivated fields and the meadowland, and outside was the 

 pasture and woodland. From this common forest the villagers 

 were allowed to cut wood for their individual use, and upon the 

 common pasture they were allowed to pasture the cattle which 

 they owned as individuals. The cattle were usually herded in 

 common by persons appointed especially for that purpose. The 

 cultivated fields had formerly been reallotted frequently, each 

 family being given an approximately equal area, usually thirty 

 acres, of approximately equal fertility. Sometimes these allot- 

 ments were in small scattered patches, so that each family might 

 h;ive, as nearly as possible, its share of each grade of land. 

 Thus, while there was communal property in land* there was 

 private property in the herds and the produce thereof, and in 

 the crops harvested from the cultivated fields. After the crops 

 were harvested the cattle of all the villagers were allowed to 



1 Cf. Sir Henry Sumner Maine, Village Communities in the East and West 

 (London, 1871). 



