AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE. 



proprietor lived less upon his estate, it soon 

 became the most eligible plan for both landlord 

 and tenant, that the whole rent should be paid 

 in money. 



Of the size of these early farms we have no 

 precise information; but, from the laws of 

 Ina we may perhaps conclude that a hide of 

 land, equal to about 100 or 120 acres, was the 

 customary size ; for, in speaking of the pro- 

 duce to be given to the lord for ten hides, the 

 law speaks of the smallest division of each 

 county of which it was particularly cognisant; 

 namely, of ten families, or a tithing, as they 

 were collectively called. Again, Bede ex- 

 pressly calls a hide of land fumilia, and says 

 it was sufficient to support a family. It was 

 otherwise called mansum, or manerium, and 

 was considered to be so much as one could 

 cultivate in a year. 



War succeeded war, and chivalry and the 

 chase were the engrossing occupations of the 

 landed proprietors during the whole of the 

 middle ages; yet amid all these convulsions, 

 and all this neglect, agriculture continued to 

 obtain a similar degree of attention, and its 

 practitioners to occupy a similarly humble, 

 yet more independent station of life. Bishop 

 Latimer flourished in the first half of the six- 

 teenth century ; and Lis father was among the 

 most respectable yeomen of his time, yet his 

 farm evidently did not exceed 100 acres. "My 

 father," says Latimer, "was a yeoman, and 

 had no lands of his own ; he had only a farm 

 of three or four pounds by the year, at the 

 utmost; and hereupon he tilled as much as 

 kept half a dozen men. He had a walk for 100 

 sheep ; and my mother milked thirty kine," 

 &c. (Latimer's Sermons, p. 30.) But that this 

 class of society was then not very refined, is 

 proved by Sir A. Fitzherbert, in his Book of 

 Husbandry, declaring, "It is the wife's occupa- 

 tion to winnow all manner of corn, to make 

 malt, to wash and wring, to make hay, to shear 

 corn, and in time of need to help her husband 

 to fill the muckwain, or dung-cart ; to drive 

 the plough, to load corn, hay, and such other; 

 and to go or ride to the market ; to sell butter, 

 cheese, milk, eggs, chickens, capons, hens, 

 pigs, geese, and all manner of corn." 



This race of farmers, and this extent of 

 farm, continued much the same till the closing 

 years of the eighteenth century. The wife, 

 indeed, had long previously ceased to partici- 

 pate in the above-mentioned drudgery, but she 

 still attended the dairy, and sold its products 

 at market, as her husband still participated in 

 the usual labours of his farm ; but in the latter 

 half of that century, and thence to the present 

 time, a different class of men have engaged in 

 the cultivation of the soil. The accumulation 

 of wealth from the vast increase and improve- 

 ment of manufactures and commerce, the 

 diffusion of better information, and the in- 

 creased population, have all contributed to this 

 effect. Individuals engage in the pursuit 

 whose education and habits require a larger 

 income for their indulgence than can be 

 afforded by the profits of a small farm; and, 

 consequently, in districts having the most fer- 

 ine soils, farms of from 300 to 500 acres are 

 very common ; whilst in less productive dis- 

 40 



tricts they extend even to 1000 a>^ ^000 acres. 

 With the present expenditure of yent, tithe, 

 taxes, rates, and labour, and the reduced 

 prices of agricultural produce, farms, even 

 of those extents, cannot yield a profit sufficient 

 to support the farmer of refined habits. And 

 if the present artificial system of corn laws is 

 removed, we do not see any possible result but 

 a return to smaller farms, and a more labour- 

 ing class of tenants ; for it admits of perfect 

 demonstration, that small farms, having that 

 manual labour, and that careful tillage which 

 small plots obtain, return a more abundant 

 produce than those which are too large to be 

 so attentively cultivated. 



Enclosure of Land. It is a rule, founded 

 upon general observation, that the most en- 

 closed country is always the best cultivated i 

 for, as Sir Anthony Fitzherbert observed, in 

 the reign of Henry VIII., live stock may be 

 better kept, and with less attendance, closes 

 be better alternately cropped, and the crops 

 better sheltered in inclement seasons, "if an 

 acre of land," he concludes, "be worth six- 

 pence an acre before it is enclosed." 



We have seen, already, that hedges, ditches, 

 and other fences, marked the boundaries of 

 the early Saxon estates ; and these were cer- 

 tainly not adventitious distinctions, for they 

 are mentioned in most of the Saxon grants of 

 which we are aware, and are strictly regulated 

 and protected by law. If a tenant omitted to 

 keep his farm enclosed, both in winter and 

 summer, and to keep his gate closed, if any 

 damage arose from his hedge being broken 

 down, or his gate being open, he was declared 

 to be legally punishable. ( Wilkins, Leges Sax, 

 21.) If a freeman broke through another's 

 hedge he was fined 6s. (Ibid.) 



As woollen manufactures improved, the de- 

 mand for broad cloths became excessive, not 

 only in England but in the continental na- 

 tions; and the consequent consumption of 

 wool was so large, and the price was so en- 

 hanced, that self-interest dictated to the landed 

 proprietors, even in the reign of Henry III., 

 that the enclosure of their manorial wastes, on 

 which to feed sheep upon their own account, 

 or to let out as pasture farms, would be a 

 source of extensive emolument. The statutes 

 of 20 Hen. 3, 13 Edw. 1, and others, were con- 

 sequently passed for sanctioning and regu- 

 lating the practice. The demand for woollens 

 continued, and became so great, that rapidity 

 of manufacture was the chief consideration. 

 " Yet as ill as they be made," says King Ed- 

 ward VI., in his private journal, " the Flemings 

 do at this time desire them wonderfully." The 

 consequences are depicted by the same genuine 

 authority. "The artificer will leave the town, 

 and for his mere pastime will live in the coun- 

 try ; yea, more than that, will be a justice of the 

 peace, and will scorn to have it denied him, so 

 lordly be they now-a-days ; for they are not con- 

 tent with 2000 sheep, but they must have 20,000, 

 or else they think themselves not well. They 

 must have twenty miles square their own land, 

 or full of their farms : four or five crafts to live 

 by is too little. Such hell-hounds be they.** 

 (Edward the Sixth's Remains, p. 101.) The 

 rents of land were consequently enormously 



