>This first question is small fields or big ones? A full carl is
>supposed to have a yoke of oxen. This implies that each carl ploughs
>his own field.
Depends how many full carls there are in the clan, as opposed to half-carls. I'd suggest it's more likely that *most* people would have to share their oxen and ploughs, which implies large communal fields. Wealthy full carls might found their own separate stead with its own fields.
> We
>could compromise by saying that each carl nominally has a yoke of
>oxen, but what is really important is the stead's total number of
>oxen, and in reality there might be a bit of flexibility in who owns
>which cattle-beasts.
According to TR most of a clan's cattle are communally owned, and that probably includes plough-oxen as well as the dairy herd.
>If you agree on large fields, then how are they shaped?
Based on mediaeval English practice: each individual field is one furlong long and four rods wide (200m x 20m), giving an area of one acre. This is the amount of land that a team of oxen can plough in a day. (Sartarites, with Barntar's magic, could probably manage larger fields). Wealthy bloodlines will farm several of these strips: one of the chieftain's duties is to ensure that each family gets an equal share of fertile and less fertile strips. Depending on local tradition, a family's strips may be concentrated together or spread out all over the stead's lands.
Communal fields are simply lots of these strips put together, normally with just boundary markers dividing them ("If a boundary marker be moved in secret, that a field is made smaller, then one cow."). The boundary markers will often be the larger stones taken from the fields while ploughing.
The terrain will determine how the strips are laid out, but bear in mind that the furthest part of the field still needs to be close enough for you to lead the oxen out there, plough the field, and return before nightfall - so fields are unlikely to be too spread out.
We know from TR that Heortlings practice three-course crop rotation - their land is divided into three sections, of which one-third is left fallow each year. With communal ploughing, that implies three separate large fields arranged in a rough circle around the stead, each divided into strips. Each year, one field will be under barley, another under wheat and/or rye, and the third left fallow. After the harvest, the clan's herds will be allowed to graze on the stubble.
>Sometimes you'll have fields and pasture in the same area. Most
>pastures will be up in the less fertile areas, but you need some
>pasture near steads, and sometimes you'll have land suitable for
>plough alongside land that is too shallow or too wet or something.
Watermeadows were quite common, since settlements tend to be built along streams or rivers. These would grow grass, to make hay to feed the cattle during Dark Season. Village greens were originally areas in the centre of the settlement where animals could be herded to keep them safe from raiders or predators.
> Anyone have other fence ideas? Do they
>actually gather up enough rocks to make low stone walls?
In hilly regions of England dry stone walls are very common, so there must be enough rocks available to make them. ("Dry stone" = no mortar is used, the rocks are simply fitted together. It's quite a skilled craft) . These are normally found on moorland and hills (sheep-farming country); in more sheltered and fertile regions hedges are easier.
Apparently it was also common to have temporary fences, presumably made of wood. These would be put round a field that was under a crop to keep the animals out, then taken down after the harvest, patched up over the winter, and erected around a different field next spring for the sowing.
Stephen
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