-
4. The Maintenance of Soil Fertility in Great Britain
- The University Press of Kentucky
- Chapter
- Additional Information
4 THE MAINTENANCE OF SOIL FERTILITY IN GREAT BRITAIN MANY ACCOUNTS of the way the present system of farming in Great Britain has arisen have been published. The main facts in its evolution from Saxon times to the present day are well known. Nevertheless. in one important respect these surveys are incomplete. Nowhere has any attempt been made to bring out the soil fertility aspect of this history and to show what has happened all down the centuries to that factor in crop production and animal husbandry-the humus content of the soil-on which so much depends. The present chapter should be regarded as an attempt to make good this omission. THE ROMAN OCCUPATION At the time of the Roman invasion most of the island in which we are living was under forest or marsh: only a portion of the uplands was under grass or crops: the population was very small. After the conquest of the country the Romans began to develop it by the creation on the areas already cleared of an agricultural unit-new to Great Britainknown as the villa. These villas were large farms under single ownership run by functionaries each responsible for a particular type of animal or crop and worked by slave labour. These units followed to some extent the methods of the latifundia of Italy and were designed for the production of food for the legions garrisoning the island and those stationed in Gaul. Wheat-an exhausting crop--was an important item in Roman agriculture. for the reason that this cereal provided the chief food (frumentum) of the soldiers. The extent of the export of grain to Gaul will be evident from the fact that in the reign of the Emperor Julian no less than 800 wheat ships were sent from Britain to the Continent. The exhaustion of the soils of the island began even before the Roman occupation. The heavy soil-inverting mould board plough. which invariably wears out the land. was already in use when the 43 Romans arrived, and was probably brought by the Belgic tribes who conquered and settled in the south-eastern part of the country. They lived in farmsteads and cultivated large open fields. They were highly skilled agriculturists and exported to Gaul a considerable quantity of their main product-wheat. This practice was developed by the Roman villas which followed and in this way the slow exhaustion of the lighter soils of the down lands of the south-east became inevitable. After an occupation which lasted some 400 years and which contributed little or nothing of permanent value to the agriculture of the island beyond some well-designed roads, the legions evacuated the island and left the Romanized population to look after itself. This they failed to do: the country was soon conquered by the Saxon invaders, in the course of which much destruction of life and property took place. One result was the creation of a new type of farming. THE SAXON CONQUEST The settlement of Nordic people in our island is the governing event both of British history and of British agriculture. The new settlers had inhabited the belts of land around the Weser and the Elbe and their first contact with Britain was as raiders; their operations were in the nature of reconnaissance to ascertain the chances of settlement. The Anglo-Saxon migration to Britain was a colonization preceded by conquest , in which the farming system of the Romanized population was, in the midland area at any rate, destroyed. In the east, south-east, and western portions of the island some relics of Roman and Celtic methods survived. Our forefathers brought with them from the opposite shores of the North Sea their wives, children, livestock, and a complete fabric of village life. The immigrants, being country folk, wanted to live in rural huts with their cattle round them and their land nearby, as they did in Germany. The numerous villages they formed reproduced in all essentials those they had left behind on the mainland. Our true English villages are, therefore, not Celtic, not Roman, but purely and typically German. The Roman villas were replaced by a new system of farming-the Saxon manor-in which the tenants held land in return for service. The lord and his retainers shared the land, each bound to perform 44 [3.88.254.50] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 11:17 GMT) certain duties determined by custom. The manors took centuries to evolve. By A.D. 800...