834 



The Enclosuee of Open-Field Fakms. [Dec, 



second under barley, oats, beans and peas; the third lay fallow. 

 It is scarcely necessary to add that roots, temporary grasses, 

 and potatoes were unknown to the Middle Ages, and did not 

 come into general use on farms until the latter half of the 

 eighteenth century. Each partner in the village farm held a 

 bundle of strips in each of the three fields. Thus, if his holding 

 was 30 acres, he would every year have ten acres under wheat 

 or rye, ten acres under the other corn crops, and ten acres 

 fallow. No attempt could be made to improve the quality of 

 the soil and bring it up to a general average. Equality could 

 only be secured by distributing the different qualities evenly 

 among the partners. In order to divide the good, medium and 

 poor land fairly, the strips which the partner held in each field 

 were widely scattered so that no two were contiguous. From 

 seed-time to harvest the strips were held in separate occupation 

 for the private use of the individual holder. After harvest, and 

 until the next season's cultivation, the live stock of the com- 

 munity wandered over the fields under the care of the common 

 herdsman, shepherd and swineherd. 



There were, therefore, common grazing rights at certain 

 seasons of the year over the whole of the meadow and arable 

 land of the partnership. There was also the common pasture 

 of the manor and village farms which lay beyond the meadows 

 and the arable fields. It was fringed by the border of waste 

 which provided fern or heather for litter and thatching, hurdle- 

 wood, and tree-loppings for winter browsing, furze and turves 

 for fuel, acorns and mast for swine, as well as large timber 

 for fencing, implements or building. For the enjoyment of 

 these lesser common rights to the produce of the waste, small 

 annual payments were often made by the village farmers to the 

 manorial lord. Still more important were the common pastures. 

 When the aftermath of the meadows was gone, and the fallows 

 and stubbles were ploughed, they supplied the only keep forj 

 the live stock, which, at the best, barely survived the winter 

 as skin and bone. They were therefore highly prized and 

 jealously guarded by the partners in the village farm as an 

 essential and integral part of their holdings. The modern and 

 popular idea of a common is founded on a misconception. The 

 general public had no share in or claim to its use ; on the con- 

 trary, they were rigidly excluded. The live stock of strangers 

 were driven off; cottages built upon it were pulled down; 

 commoners who turned out more cattle than they were entitled 

 to were " presented " and fined. Those who enjoyed the 



