THE PROBLEM OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 45 



those of the rest of the villagers. Of the land held in villenage, far 

 the greater part was held in whole or half virgates or yardlands. The 

 virgate was a holding made up of scattered acre or half-acre strips in 

 the three fields, with appurtenant and proportionate rights to meadow 

 and pasture; and its extent, there can be no doubt, was usually thirty 

 acres, although in some manors it was as few as sixteen, in others as 

 many as forty-eight. The holders of such virgates or half-virgates 

 formed a class socially equal among themselves, and all of them, in 

 any particular manor, with the same obligations of service to the lord. 

 They were known as villani, i.e., the " villagers" par excellence, and 

 in the thirteenth century as virgarii, in English yardlings, while in the 

 north they often bore the title husbands. Below these was the class 

 of bordars and cotters, most of them holding only a cottage and one or 

 two acres, though sometimes as many as five, eight, or ten acres of 

 course hi the common fields. They seem to have been marked off 

 from the villeins proper by not possessing oxen or plough; and prob- 

 ably in many cases they were employed by the villeins. 



The whole of the land of the manor, both demesne and villenage, 

 was cultivated on an elaborate system of joint labour. The only per- 

 manent labourers upon the demesne itself were a few slaves; all or 

 almost all the labour there necessary was furnished by the villeins and 

 cotters, as the condition on which they held then: holdings, and under 

 the supervision of the lord's bailiff. At first sight bewildering in then- 

 complexity, the duties may readily be distinguished as falling under 

 two main heads: (i) a man's labour for two or three days a week 

 throughout the year, known as week-work or daily works; and (2) addi- 

 tional labour for a few days at spring and autumn ploughing and at 

 harvest time. On such occasions the lord frequently demanded the 

 labour of the whole family, with the exception of the housewife. For 

 these additional services the commonest English expressions were 

 boon-days, loveboons, and bedrips (reaping specially bidden). Besides 

 these, there were usually small quarterly payments to be made in 

 money, and miscellaneous dues in kind, differing from manor to manor 

 so many hens and eggs, or so many bushels of oats at various 

 seasons; as well as miscellaneous services, also differing in the differ- 

 ent manors, of which the one most frequently mentioned is "carting." 

 During the boon-days it was usual for the lord to feed the labourers; 

 and, in the later custumals, the precise definition of the days upon 

 which they were and were not to be fed at the lord's expense, or, even 

 more minutely, when they were to have drink and nothing else, when 



