The Early Years of British Agriculture 9 



owing to bad drainage ; and it was very injurious to the 

 best interests of the tenants that their strips were 

 closely adjoining, so that trespass was frequent, and 

 good ploughing was not possible. Among the other 

 difficulties were the bad roads, which were often mere 

 "ways" and in bad weather treacherous sloughs. 

 This fact, together with the constant seeding of thistles 

 and weeds on adjoining strips made the work of an 

 Anglo-Saxon tenant not very profitable. 



Early agriculture in England was very rude. The 

 plough was clumsy, draught cattle, horses, and oxen, 

 were small, and the ground was only scratched on the 

 surface. The husbandman, besides the farmyard 

 manure, used marl and lime as fertilisers. The seed 

 was thrown broadcast on the land, and four times the 

 seed sown was considered a fair crop. Nothing was 

 known of winter roots, or of artificial grasses, and so 

 the cattle were starved in the winter, and always 

 small. The corn was reaped by cutting off the ears, 

 the straw remaining on the field, at least for a time, 

 and often permanently, in order to restore the ground. 

 The stock on the land was far more valuable than the 

 land itself; in some cases there is evidence that the 

 stock on a well-tilled farm was worth three times as 

 much as the land. 



The first object of the manor was its own support ; 

 and the needs of the community were satisfied almost 

 entirely from the ploughing and tilling of the ground, 

 and from the use and increase of the domestic animals. 

 The handiworkers or craftsmen had their special work, 

 but this was for furthering these same needs. Nothing 

 shows more clearly the change that has come over 

 England, when we remember that the artisans, workers 



