SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



common fields, and 6,000 odd were waste lands, so that further inclosures 

 were recommended. 



Uninclosed lands formed but one of the obstacles to improvements, 

 however, the terms of tenancy being a further difficulty. Some farmers only 

 held their lands by an agreement from year to year, and had therefore no 

 security for their occupation, and were not ready to sink their capital in their 

 land. Others had leases, but these were often for a short term of years, with 

 bad covenants with regard to the system of cropping. This was specially 

 the case with the common fields, in which the old mediaeval rotation of two 

 crops and a fallow was still the custom ; but near Hardwick the leases allowed 

 three crops and a fallow, though no clover. In inclosed parishes a better 

 system as a rule prevailed and turnips were introduced, especially in the 

 Chiltern districts, where the farming was good. Leases often contained 

 penalties for certain offences, such as breaking up pasture and cutting down 

 timber. In consequence a great deal of damage was done at the end of a 

 lease, the profit to the tenant being much above the penalty to be enforced. 

 The land in the open fields was held in strips by the yardland, which varied 

 in size from 28 to 40 acres in different parts of the county, and the tenants 

 had various pasture rights in the meadows and commons. Inclosure often 

 did away with these rights, and was especially a loss to the poorer inhabitants, 

 who could no longer keep a cow on the common. The baulks, or divisions 

 between the strips, which had been used generally for pasture, were now 

 ploughed up and the meadows were no longer thrown open after hay harvest, 

 hence in most places the number of cattle and sheep decreased after inclosure. 

 The Board of Agriculture also considered that all commons and wastes should 

 be cultivated as arable land, but the only commons inclosed by Act of Par- 

 liament about this time were Hyde Heath at Chesham and the Pasture and 

 Doggett's Furze at Olney. 



In the common fields ploughing in straight furrows had rarely been 

 introduced, but the old method of starting in the centre and ploughing in a 

 serpentine form was still followed, to the great detriment of the crops. The 

 improvements effected by inclosures are clearly shown in the difference of the 

 rents of the two kinds of land. In the parishes of Aston Clinton, Weston 

 Turville, and Buckland, where the soil was good, the rents of inclosures were 

 double the rents in the open fields, and elsewhere they were very considerably 

 higher. 



By 1813 dairy-farming in the vale, and to some extent in the district to 

 the north, had followed on the inclosure of land, and very high rents were 

 obtained for the pastures. The average rent, tithes included, was 4U., but 

 as much as 3 an acre was given in some places. In the south the rents of 

 the arable land were more moderate, averaging jTi o/. 6d. an acre, though at 

 Fawley it was let at from IQJ. to i8j., and at Horton at 45^. an acre. Sheep- 

 farming was generally on the decrease, though in some instances the breed of 

 sheep had been considerably improved. 



In the Vale the inclosures were on a small scale, generally from 10 to 

 20 acres, in spite of their being mainly on dairy farms ; still some fields 

 contained 30 acres and upwards. In the south the inclosures on the arable 

 farms were on a larger scale. 



At this time Buckinghamshire had ceased to be purely an agricultural 



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