Well both KoS and TR mention half-carls and cottars who I'd also regard as farmers. We could be disagreeing on the meaning of the word "farmer". To me it means someone who makes their living primarily by producing food from the land.
>>the only way to justify such an investment is for it to be far more
>>productive than alternative methods of cultivation
>
>I'd imagine the higher status of being a carl would be a pretty good
>incentive to practice carl-style agriculture.
Status is a big incentive but status comes from doing something others cannot. That's either due to restrictive practices or being able to produce something in short supply. Given the investment required for a plough and ox team that's going to be the source of the status. And if you're making that sort of investment you're going to need a good return on it. I don't think the Heortlings produce a sufficient surplus for inefficency to have high status.
> In fact, this is
>probably one of the reasons there are cattle loans.
You think that someone can get the status of carl by borrowing enough cattle to support an ox team? Given that a lot of a clan's cattle are owned either by the clan or bloodlines rather than individuals I don't see it. Certainly it makes sense for a bloodline's cattle to be counted towards the qualification of some of their members as carl. However cattle loans will be much more to do with allocation of labour between bloodlines. If a bloodline has more cattle than they can manage they will lend some to another. This is probably most common with the chief's herd. In this way poorer cottars get the products of a milk cow or two for the labour of looking after them and the value of the cow doesn't go to waste.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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