1921.] The Enclosure of Open-Field Farms. 899 



THE ENCLOSURE OF OPEN-FIELD 

 FARMS. 



The Right Hon. Lord Ernle, M.V.O. 



In a previous article on this subject, published in last 

 month's issue, Lord Ernie dealt ivith the general question 

 ©f the enclosure of common land in this countrii from the 

 agricultural point of view, and pointed out that English his- 

 tory records tivo great periods of enclosure : (1) 1485-1560 ; 

 and (2) 1760-1820. • 



Agriculturally, the main objection to the ancient system of 

 common cultivation was its want of flexibility. Under its 

 rigid rules, the methods of farming and the use of land 

 remained for centuries unaltered. But nature defies human 

 regulations. One great change was in progress, and that was 

 the declining fertility of the open-field farms. A holding of 

 1-3 arable acres — and the majority were probably less — which 

 had in the 13th century provided the necessary food for a 

 family, failed to produce it 200 years later. The virgin rich- 

 ]iess of the soil was long ago exhausted; year after year much 

 had been taken out and little put back; considerable tracts 

 of land could no longer be profitably tilled for corn. Reliable 

 statistics are not available on so extensive a scale as to 

 demonstrate in conclusive fashion the degree to which the yield 

 had declined. But such figures as can safely be used seem 

 to show that, even on demesne lands, the produce of wheat 

 per acre had fallen from the neighbourhood of 10 bushels in 

 the 13th century to between 6 and 7 bushels in the 

 15th century.'*' They also suggest that a smaller area was 

 under wheat; in other w^ords, that only the best soil was tilled 

 for corn, and that inferior land had dropped out of arable 

 cultivation because it no longer produced enough to make 

 tillage profitable. If this was happening on the enclosed 

 demesnes of churchmen like the Bishop of Winchester, managed 

 with the highest farming skill of the day, it is not unreasonable 

 to infer that the open-field farms were at least in no better 



' On the demesnes of the Bishop of Winchester wheat was grown in 

 1208-09 on 6,838 acres, and in 1396-97 on 2,366^ acres. On the Manoi- of 

 Whitney, a similar dechne is marked from 417 acres in 1209 to 5H hi 1397. 

 The yield in 1397 was on the Winchester land 6 bushels, and on the Whitney 

 land 6^ bushels, to the acre. The 13th century work on agriculture, known as 

 Walter of Henley's Husbandry, calculates the expected j^ield of wheat per 

 acre at 10 bushels. 



