6 
LandmdrTis in British Farming. 
at wliat season, and with how many oxen, each free tenant or 
villein was bound to assist in making up the plough teams ; to 
see that the oxen were yoked at the proper time ; to take care 
that they were not cast off till the full day’s work was done ; to 
sow the seed with his own hand ; to superintend the various 
agricultural operations ; and, in brief, to direct the whole work 
of the farm, and the whole staff of agricultural labourers. 
Most of the work on the lord’s demesne was performed by 
the labour services of the tenantry. Ploughing and reaping 
were the most important of these obligations. On ploughing 
days the tenants met the lord’s officers at early dawm. The 
cottars came without oxen, and were probably set to work at 
delving, or breaking the clods with beetles. The free tenants 
and the villeins came with one, or two, or even four oxen, ac- 
cording to the size of their holdings. Similarly, on reaping 
days, each tenant, according to the size of his holding, either 
sent men, or came himself to the harvest. Sometimes the ser- 
vices of the whole family, except the housewife, were required. 
Harvests were days of merry-making. 
Tn tyme of liarve.st mery it is ynough ; 
The hayward bio weth mery his home, 
lu eueryche felde ripe is corue. 
The season meant the return of plenty after months of scarcity, 
and the haiwest was followed by a feast provided by the lord of 
the manor. Lammas-day, or Loafmass-day, was so called be- 
cause a thanksgiving mass was celebrated for the firstfruits of 
corn. The obligatory services of the tenants were one of the 
chief pecuniary values of the manor. The tenants felled, hauled, 
prepared, and put up the timber of wffiich the lord’s house was 
built. They erected and repaired his granaries and ox-sheds ; 
they ke])t the few fences in order ; they maintained the mill- 
pond and the weir. They ploughed, manured, harrowed, weeded, 
and sowed his land ; they reaped, stacked, and threshed his 
corn ; they mowed and carried his hay ; they supplied liim 
with beasts of burden and of draught. 
The whole farm, whether demesne or tenantry land, was 
tilled ripon this system of joint labour. The farmers of the 
separate plots did not live upon the land they cultivated : con- 
sequently there were no farm-houses and no separate labourers’ 
cottages. All the cultivators of the land were bound to the soil ; 
none could leave the manor without pajunent of a fine. No 
social gaps separated agiucultural labourers from tenant-farmers. 
All were holders of land together ; all were compelled, even 
from the lord downwards, to follow the same system of joint 
cultivation, to plough, sow, and reap at the same time. All the 
