Abstract
THE layout of the countryside of England as we see it to-day is a very recent development ; even the strict four-course rotation that in many places preceded it, and which is often regarded as the real old English system of farming, lasted but little more than a century. The system that had the long life in England was the one associated with the open fields. It comprised two distinct features: sub-division of the land among those entitled to share in it ; and a rotation which usually consisted of winter corn: spring corn: fallow: it is thus described by Tusser in 1573:
The Open Fields
By C. S. C. S. Orwin. Pp. xii + 332 + 29 plates. (Oxford: Clarendon Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1938.) 21s. net.
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RUSSELL, E. The English 'Open Field' System. Nature 142, 646 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142646a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142646a0