e
unknown, and other root crops and fresh vegetables apparently were
little cultivated. Wheat and rye of several varieties were raised as
bread-stuff, barley and some other grains for the brewing of beer.
Field peas and beans were raised, sometimes for food, but generally as
forage for cattle. The main supply of winter forage for the farm
animals had, however, to be secured in the form of hay, and for this
reliance was placed entirely on the natural meadows, as no clover or
grasses which could be artificially raised on dry ground were yet
known. Meadow land was constantly estimated at twice the value of
arable ground or more. To obtain a sufficient support for the oxen,
horses, and breeding animals through the winter required, therefore, a
constant struggle. Owing to this difficulty animals that were to be
used for food purposes were regularly killed in the fall and salted
down. Much of the unhealthiness of medieval life is no doubt
attributable to the use of salt meat as so large a part of what was at
best a very monotonous diet.

Summer pasture for the horses, cattle, sheep, and swine of the village
was found partly on the arable land after the grain crops had been
taken off, or while it was lying fallow. Since all the acres in any
one great field were planted with the same crop, this would be taken
off from the whole expanse at practically the same time, and the
animals of the whole village might then wander over it, feeding on the
stubble, the grass of the balks, and such other growth as sprung up
before the next ploughing, or before freezing weather. Pasturage was
also found on the meadows after the hay had been cut. But the largest
amount of all was on the "common pasture," the uncultivated land and
woods which in the thirteenth century was still sufficiently
abundant in most parts of England to be found in considerable extent
on almost every manor. Pasturage in all these forms was for the most
part common for all the animals of the vill, which were sent out under
the care of shepherds or other guardians. There were, however,
sometimes enclosed pieces of pasture land in the possession of the
lord of the manor or of individual villagers.

The land of the vill was held and cultivated according to a system of
scattered acres. That is to say, the land held by any one man was not
all in one place, but scattered through various parts of the open
fields of the vill. He would have an acre or two, or perhaps only a
part