THE PROBLEM OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 43 



live stock might graze, and which therefore supplied superior feed. 

 Besides the open arable fields, the meadows, and the stinted hams, 

 there were the common pastures, fringed by the untilled wastes which 

 were left in their native wildness. These wastes provided fern and 

 heather for litter, bedding, or thatching; small wood for hurdles; 

 tree-loppings for winter browse of live-stock; furze and turves for 

 fuel; large timber for fencing, implements, and building; mast, 

 acorns, and other food for the swine. Most of these smaller rights 

 were made the subject of fixed annual payments to the manorial lord ; 

 but the right of cutting fuel was generally attached to the occupation, 

 not only of arable land, but of cottages. The most important part of 

 these lands were the common pastures, which were often the only grass 

 that arable farmers could command for their live stock. They there- 

 fore formed an integral and essential part of the village farm. No 

 rights were exercised upon them by the general public. On the con- 

 trary, the commons were most jealously guarded by the privileged 

 commoners against the intrusion or encroachments of strangers. The 

 agistment of strange cattle or sheep was strictly prohibited; com- 

 moners who turned out more stock than their proper share were 

 "presented" at the manorial courts and fined; cottages erected on the 

 commons were condemned to be pulled down; the area within which 

 swine might feed was carefully limited, and the swine were to be 

 ringed. Those who enjoyed grazing rights were the occupiers of 

 arable land, whose powers of turning out stock were, in theory, pro- 

 portioned to the area of their arable holdings, and the occupiers of 

 certain cottages, which commanded higher rents in consequence of 

 the privilege. It was on these commons that the cattle and sheep of 

 the village were fed. Every morning the cattle were collected, prob- 

 ably by the sound of a horn, and driven to the commons by the village 

 herdsman along drift ways, which were inclosed on either side by 

 movable or permanent fences to keep the animals from straying onto 

 the arable land. In the evening they were driven back, each animal 

 returning to its own shelter, as the herd passed up the village street. 

 Similarly, the sheep were driven by the village shepherd to the com- 

 mons by day, and folded at night on the wheat fallows. Sheep were 

 the manure-carriers, and were prized as much for their folding quality 

 as for their fleeces. During winter each commoner was obliged to 

 find hay for his sheep and his own fold, the common shepherd penning 

 and folding them so as gradually to cover the whole area. 



