The Early Years of British Agriculture 7 



manor was divided into three great fields, one being for 

 fallow, one for winter tillage, and one for spring tillage. 

 These fields were generally subdivided into smaller 

 oblong fields of acre or half -acre strips running parallel 

 to each other if in the same field, or at an angle if in 

 different fields. The three large fields were divided by 

 roads or streams ; the smaller by narrow ridges of 

 turf called " balks." In some cases there would be 

 thousands of half -acre strips in a parish, and of course 

 some of them would be fertile, some stony, and some 

 useless. It was therefore arranged that each tenant 

 should have his strips scattered over the fields, so that 

 a rough kind of equality was the result. 



It will be noticed that no mention of hedges occurs 

 in the above description; they became a later feature 

 of the countryside. The wet lands were drained by 

 ditches, dikes, and runnels; and through the larger 

 fields ran rivulets, brooks, and larger streams, whose 

 banks were covered with rank grass, brambles, and 

 brushwood, and whose running water turned the mill. 



Beyond the large fields of the manor would be the 

 woodlands and the forest, thus separating settlements, 

 and making communication of rare occurrence, and 

 in some parts an impossibility. These forests were 

 resorts of dangerous beasts, and the bleak moors which 

 lay interspersed were equally to be dreaded. The 

 common woodland trees were oak, ash, elm, beech, 

 maple, lime, birch, and thorn; the undergrowth was 

 full of hazel, elder, scrub, willow, and ferns. 



The pre-Norman system of agriculture was wasteful 

 in many wa*ys. It was a great loss to the community 

 that one-third of the land was fallow in a year ; it was 

 a very serious loss that large tracts were never cultivated 



