Sustainable Agriculture and Food: Four volume set (Earthscan Reference Collections)

276 Agricultural Revolutions and Change

on his farm. As the two touring farmers, Boys and Ellman, recorded in 1793, ‘in
Mr Young’s experimental ground are several patches of about a perch each, of
many sorts of grasses, amongst which the meadow fescue and Alopecurus pratensis
seem the best; timothy tolerably good; peas bad; Avena elatior very strong but
coarse’ (Boys and Ellman, 1793).

Table 12.3 A Sample of crop rotation patterns on five fields of the farm of Arthur

Biddell, Playford, Suffolk for the periods 1807–1817 and 1840–1850

Years Fields

Holly Bush Lollys Paddock Thistley Church Field

1807 Tu W W Be W

1808 B Tu W W B

1809 Cl B w Tu Lu/Ta

1810 W Ta Be B B/Be

1811 Tu W W Cl O

1812 B T Cl W Cl

1813 WCl B W Be W

1814 W Cl Ley W Pot/B

1815 Be W Cs Tu W

1816 W Be W B Lu/Be

1817 T W Tu/H WC1 W

1840 W Ley Tf/Tu W Be

1841 Tu W B Bt/Pot W

1841 B Tu WCl B Tf/Tu

1843 Ta/Car B W Be W

1844 W RCl Bt/Car W RC1

1845 Bt Rg W Tu W

1846 B Tu Tf B Bt

1847 GP B W RCl W

1848 W Be Ta W Mus

1849 Tu W Mus Tu W

1850 B Tu W B Tu

Key:

W = wheat

B = barley

Be = beans

Cl = clover

WCl = white clover

Luc = lucerne

Bt = beet

Tf = trefoil

Car = carrot

Cs = coleseed

Mus = mustard

GP = gold of pleasure (camelina)

RCl = red clover

Tu = turnips

Ta = tares

Rg = rye grass

Ley = summer ley

H = hemp

Source: Biddell, no date. ESCRO HA2B3-4/1