1. Medieval Farming Systems

2. Feudalism and Rural Life
People moved from town to country.
Soil was important
The lord, his family, his servants, and his retainers were supported
The country estate of a lord was known as a manor.

7. Manorial System :
the serfs (not a slave, but bound to the land--lived in a village and farmed the land communally , giving a share of their labour and the crop to the knight
the knight and his family lived in the castle and had responsibility to protect the serfs and to fight when called up by the king
the farmers had some opportunity to better themselves by improving farming practices

8. The Manor
varied in size, according to the wealth of its lord. six hundred acres average estate
every noble had at least one manor
great nobles might have several manors,
even the king depended on his many manors for the food supply of the court.

10. Common Cultivation of the Arable Land
the lord reserved as much as he needed for his own use.
The lord's land was called his "demesne," or domain. The rest of the land he allotted to the peasants who were his tenants, separated, not by fences or hedges, but by banks of unploughed turf.
The appearance of a manor, when under cultivation, has been likened to a vast checkerboard or a patchwork quilt.
A man had to sow the same kinds of crops as his neighbours, and to till and reap them at the same time.

12. Farming Methods
very backward. Farmers did not know how to enrich the soil by the use of fertilizers
each year they cultivated only two-thirds of the land, letting the other third lie "fallow" (uncultivated), the average yield was small
Farm animals were small. A full-grown ox reached a size scarcely larger than a calf of today, and the fleece of a sheep often weighed less than 50 grams

14. The Mouldboard Plough (8th century)
required 6 to 8 oxen to pull
led to cooperative farming

15. Three field system of Agriculture
Manor lands were therefore farmed using the three-field system of agriculture. One field was devoted to winter crops, another to summer crops, and a third lying fallow each year.
The land was worked by peasants.
Three field crop rotation
winter wheat or rye
spring oats, beans, or barley
fallow

16. Farm Tools were few and clumsy.
wooden ploughs only scratched the ground.
Farrowing was done with a hand implement little better than a large rake.
Grain was cut with a sickle, and grass was mown with a scythe.
It took five men a day to reap and bind the harvest of two acres.

18. Horsepower replaces oxen (widespread by 12th century)
WHY WAS THIS GOOD?

19. A horse could work for more hours a day and moved 50% faster!
the horse collar (8th-9th century)--allows a horse to pull 4 or 5 times more weight.
iron horseshoes (common by 11th century) allowed horses to work on wet ground
the stirrup made possible the mounted knight, creating a demand for more and better horses
One negative
oats (oxen can work on grass alone)

20. Work that needed to be done Weather the farmer wanted January
Month
Work that needed to be done
Weather the farmer wanted
January
mending and making tools, repairing fences
showers
February
carting manure and marl
March
ploughing and spreading manure
dry, no severe frosts
April
spring sowing of seeds, harrowing
showers and sunshine
May
digging ditches, first ploughing of fallow fields
June
hay making, second ploughing of fallow field, sheep-shearing
dry weather
 July
hay making, sheep-shearing, weeding of crops
dry early, showers later

21. threshing, ploughing and pruning fruit trees showers
August
Harvesting
warm, dry weather
September
threshing, ploughing and pruning fruit trees
showers
October
Last ploughing of the year
dry, no severe frosts
November
collecting acorns for pigs
showers and sunshine
December
Mending and making tools, killing animals