21 1] THE FERTILITY OF THE COMMON FIELDS 55 



TABLE V 



Yield or Wheat at Witney * 



Date Bushels per acre Acres sown 



1309 3^3 417 



1277 BVi x8o 



1278 191 



1283 8^ 



1284 10^ 



1285 7^ 



1300 (7-10) 



1340 syi 126 



1341 7^A 138 



1342 6 132 



1344 129 



1346 55^ 127 



1347 6^ i^ 



1348 6y4 138 



1349 4H ia6 



1350 5^ 



1351 6^ 



1352 BVa 



1353 5 



1397 6% 51^ 



or may not be representative. Land which, over a series of \ 

 years, fails to produce enough to pay for cultivation is no 1 

 longer planted. If the fertility of the soil is declining, this 

 is shown by the gradual withdrawal from cultivation of the 

 less productive land, as it is realized that it produces so little 

 that it no longer pays to till it. Table IV shows that in fact 1 

 this withdrawal of worn out land from cultivation was actu- ' 

 ally taking place. The area sown with wheat on the twenty- 

 five manors for which the statistics for both periods are 

 available was reduced by more than fifty per cent between 



^ Gras, op. cit, appendix A ; Levett and Ballard, op, cit., pp. 190, 203. 



