The process would be repeated in
the third year, and in this way the rotation would continue to be
maintained. There were districts in which the three-field ousted the
two-field system; and others in which neither entirely displaced the
other. Both eventually gave way to the more modern method of four-course
husbandry. The three-field style of agriculture may date back to the
remote reign of King Ine, when, it seems certain, open-field cultivation
in some form was the rule. This being the case, it was necessary that
the fields in which corn and grass were growing should be fenced off for
the time being; and one of King Ine's laws has reference to the
recognition or neglect of this neighbourly duty:
"If churls have a common meadow or other partible land[15] to fence, and
some have fenced their part, and some have not, and (cattle stray in
and) eat up their common corn or grass; let those go who own the gap and
compensate to the others who have fenced their part the damage which
there may be done, and let them demand such justice on the cattle, as it
may be right. But if there be a beast which breaks hedges, and goes in
everywhere, and he who owns it cannot restrain it, let him who finds it
in his field take it and slay it, and let the owner take its skin and
flesh, and forfeit the rest."
The picture this law presents is that of fields divided by temporary
fences, in which, if the three-field system were in use, two would be
under cultivation and the third fallow.
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