236 OPEN-FIELD FARMS AND PASTURE COMMONS 



" a well-known fact that men have ploughed their land in the 

 night for the express purpose of stealing a furrow from their 

 neighbour ; and at all tunes it is a constant practice in some to 

 plough from each other." " I have known," says one of his 

 informants, " years wherein not a single sheep totally kept in the 

 open field has escaped the rot." Yet on this same land, enclosed 

 and drained, not one sheep died from the rot in nineteen years. 



In 1770, the South and East of Warwickshire had mainly con- 

 sisted of open-fields. Now (1794) x there still remained 50,000 

 acres. But in 1813 2 it is reported that a very small area continued 

 in an unenclosed state. 



Northamptonshire, 3 in 1794, contained 89 parishes still in open- 

 fields. There was, therefore, " above one third of the whole 

 (county) by no means in the best state of cultivation of which it is 

 susceptible." The commons did not " yield pasturage," " at the 

 highest computation," which was worth more than " 5s. an acre. 

 Indeed, if the calculation was fairly made, the occupiers are not 

 benefited to the extent of half that sum, as the stock which they 

 send to depasture upon these commons is liable to so many diseases 

 and accidents, as, one year with another, nearly counterbalances 

 any advantages which can be derived from possessing this right. . . . 

 By every information that could be procured, it appears that the 

 stock is not kept with a view to any profit that can possibly arise 

 from the sales, but merely as the means of cultivating and manuring 

 the soil. Indeed, long experience has evinced, that no species 

 of stock kept in these open fields can be carried to market on 

 terms nearly so advantageous as the same articles raised by those 

 farmers who occupy inclosed lands ; nor is it to be supposed, 

 considering the manner in which the stock is treated, that the 

 owners will pay much attention to the improvement of the different 

 breeds." As to the arable land, " the several occupiers must con- 

 form to the ancient mode of cultivation of each division or field 

 in which their lands are respectively situated ; from which it will 

 appear that one obstinate tenant (and fortunate must that parish 

 be accounted, where only one tenant of that description may be 

 found) has it in his power to prevent the introduction of any improve- 

 ment. . . . The tillage lands are divided into small lots of two or 



1 Wedge's Warwickshire (1794), p. 20. 



2 Murray's Warwickshire (1813), pp. 62, 144. 



3 Donaldson's Northants (1794), pp 24, 29, 58. 



