farms which are managed with less housing: and oftimes for
improvement as it is called which is done by buying in all
freeholds, copyholds, and tenements that have common and which
harboured very many husbandry and labouring families and then
enclosing the commons and fields, turning the managry from
tillage to grasing.[120]

Not only were these men able to pay little rent for the land they
held, but, as has been suggested, they were unable to maintain the
land in proper condition by the use of manure and marl. These expenses
were beyond the means of the farmer who was falling behind; they
neglected the soil because they were poor, and they were poor because
the yield of the land was so low; but their neglect caused it to
decline even more. Fitzherbert, who deplores the fact that marl is no
longer used in his time, points out that not only the leaseholder, who
is averse to making improvements on account of the insecurity of his
tenure, but the freeholder, also, is neglecting his land; although

He knoweth well, he shall take the profits while he liueth, & his
heyres after him, a corrage to improw his owne, the which is as
good as and he purchased as much as the improwment cometh
to.[121]

But if he spent money on marling the soil, he would have nothing to
live on while waiting for the crop. The very poverty of the small
holders made it necessary for them to sink in still greater poverty,
until the lord deprived them of the land, or until they became so
discouraged that they gave it up of their own volition. They might
easily understand the force of Fitzherbert's arguments without being
able to follow his advice. "Marle mendeth all manor of grounde, but it
is costly."[122] The same thing is true of manure. According to
Denton, the expense of composting land was almost equivalent to the
value of the fee simple of the ground. He refers to a record of the
early fourteenth century of the payment of more than twice the
ordinary rent for composted land.[123] With manure at high prices, the
man in difficulty might be tempted to sell what he had; it was
certainly out of the question for him to buy more. Or, what amounted
to the same thing, he might sell hay or straw, and so reduce the
forage for his cattle, and return less to the soil by means of their
dung.

Dr. Simkhovitch points out the difference between the farmer who is
unable to meet expenses in a particular year