Agriculture

Abstract

Though there were many different systems practised in early eighteenth-century Britain, over a wide area of the country arable farming was still quite widely carried on in the medieval system of open fields. This was basically a system of mixed farming, involving animal feeding (for draught animals, meat and dairy produce), though the emphasis was heavily on grain cultivation. None the less, the grassland formed an important part of the farmland: it had to meet two basic needs: for grazing while the grass grew during the summer months, and for hay for winter feed. The meadow, where the hay crop was grown, was often the richest and most valuable section of the farmland.