2. The three fields were unfenced so anyone or any animal could wander into the fields and destroy or eat the crops.
3. The three fields were divided into strips. This meant that if one person did not clear away weeds, they spread to the rest of the field very easily.
4. Disease often spread among the animals as they mingled on the commons (a grassy area in the village/town where the animals grazed). The commons was also not big enough to keep the animals there throughout the winter. Many of the cattle and sheep were killed every winter to feed the farmers’ families.
Year 1: Wheat Year 2: Barley Year 3: Fallow
Wheat
11
Year 1: Fallow Year 2: Wheat Year 3: Barley
Fallow
Year 1: Barley Year 2: Fallow Year 3: Wheat
Barley
Fig 11.4 Crop rotation did not allow farmers to produce enough food for the increasing population.
These factors meant that as the population grew, farmers were not able to produce enough food. Farmers looked for new methods. These changes are called the Agricultural Revolution.
Improvements in farming
Enclosure 1. Landowners began to ‘enclose’ fields with fences and hedges. Farmers no longer had to move from one field to the next in the open-field method. Instead they brought all their land into individual fields.
2. Weeds and disease from other farmers’ strips were reduced. 3. Farmers who wanted to introduce new farming methods found it easier to do in one enclosed area. 4. Animals could no longer wander into fields and eat the crops.
Fig 11.5 How farmland looked before enclosure – see pages 93–94 for a reminder of medieval farming.
Fig 11.6 How farmland looked after landowners began ‘enclosing’ fields.