Certain remote districts retain the ancient agricultural system, by which every portion of the territory was successivelybrought under cultivation, by a rotation of eighteen or twenty years, without any permanent distinction between arable andpasture land. This was the primitive rotation in Germany, and is still practised on the fertile steppes of Russia, as well as onthe barren plateau of the Ardennes and the virgin forests of Brazil, wherever, in fact, there is sufficient space.
The agricultural systems just described lasted in England till the commencement of the present century, and many traces ofthem still exist. William Marshall, who described exhaustively the rural economy of England, writing between 1770 and1820, speaks as follows on the subject:
"A very few centuries ago, nearly the whole of the lands of England lay in an open, and more or less in a commonable state.
Each parish or township was considered as one common farm; though the tenantry were numerous "Round the village in which the tenants resided lay a few small inclosures, or grass yards, for rearing calves, and as baitingand nursery ground a for other farm stock. This was the common farmstead, or homestall, which was generally placed asnear the centre of the more culturable lands of the parish or township as water and shelter would permit.
"Round the homestall lay a suit of arable fields, including the deepest and soundest of the lower grounds, situated out ofwater's way, for raising corn and pulse, as well as to produce fodder and litter for cattle and horses in the winter season.
"And, in the lowest situation, as in the water-formed base of a rivered valley or in swampy dips, shooting up among thearable lands, lay an extent of meadow grounds or ` ings ,' to afford a supply of hay for cows and working stock in the winterand spring months.
"On the outskirts of the arable lands, where the soil is adapted to the pasturage of cattle, or on the springy slope of hills, lessadapted to cultivation, or in the fenny bases of valleys, which were too wet, or gravelly water-formed lands, which were toodry, to produce an annual supply of hay with sufficient certainty, one or more stinted pastures, or hams, were laid out formilking cows, working cattle, or other stock which required superior pasturage in summer.
"While the bleakest, worst-soiled, and most distant lands of the township were left in their native wild state for timber andfuel, and for a common pasture, or suit of pastures, for the more ordinary stock of the township, whether horses, rearingcattle, sheep, or swine, without any other stint or restriction than what the arable and meadow lands indirectly gave; everyjoint-tenant, or occupier of the township, having the nominal privilege of keeping as much live stock on these commonpastures m summer as the appropriated lands he occupied would maintain in winter.
"The appropriated lands of each township were laid out with equal good sense and propriety. That each occupier might havehis proportionate share of lands of different qualities, and lying in different situations, the arable lands more particularly weredivided into numerous parcels, of sizes, doubtless, according to the size of the given township and the number and ranks ofthe occupiers.
"And, that the whole might be subjected to the same plan of management, and be conducted as one common farm, the arablelands were moreover divided into compartments, or `fields,' of nearly equal size, and generally three in number, to receive inconstant rotation the triennial succession of fallow, wheat (or rye) and spring crops (as barley, oats, beans and peas)."Sir Henry Maine expresses his surprise at the number of traces, that he has met with, of the former existence of collectiveownership and joint cultivation. (6)
In many counties turf-grown ridges, or baulkes , are still to be traced, which formerly separated the three fields of thetriennial rotation. These baulkes were so long, that in some villages they measured as much as eighty acres, although not tenfeet in breadth. In several counties, a large portion of the land is not enclosed, but is divided into open, intermixed fields.
According to Marshall, "in Huntingdonshire, out of a total area of 240,000 acres, 130,000 were commonable." The agrarianorganization in England and Germany are, therefore, precisely similar. In the Anglo-Saxon period, although the lords hadalready more extensive lands together with certain privileges, the condition of the cultivators was easy, and very generalequality prevailed among them. The Anglo-Saxon hide, the ordinary portion of each family, with its virgata terrae ,contained from sixteen to fifty acres, according to the fertility of the soil. It was sufficient to produce the corn necessary forthe support of the family. The wide extent of the common pasturage enabled them to keep large herds, and there wasplentiful supply of wood. The first wants of life were therefore abundantly supplied for every one.
The result of the Norman conquest was to increase the power and wealth of the higher classes, and to lower the condition ofthe mere free man. The Saxon kings had already, from time to time, disposed of waste land and so reduced the domain ofthe communes; .but the Norman sovereigns, regardmg themselves as proprietors of the whole soil, by right of conquest,made much more frequent grants, and the greater part of the folcland was converted into terra regis or royal domain. Thisusurpation was especially directed against the forests.
