8o THE PEASANT'S YEAR
fertilising the soil and were most important. The straw of the
previous year's harvest was carefully saved, and was used in the
cowsheds and stables during the winter, and then piled up out-
side and mixed with earth, or even thrown in roads and paths for
a time.1 Before the drought of March it was carted on to the
fields, and ploughed into the earth;2 and so valuable was it
considered that we are told that the straw kept for this purpose
was worth half the price of the corn.3 The peasant, therefore,
did his best to have some of this precious manure ready for his
fields, even though his lord had exercised his rights of folding
his cattle for part of the year, and thus deprived him of part of
this most valuable fertiliser. Marl was less commonly used, and
it must have been an exceedingly laborious and slow business to
cart the large quantities required on to the land, break it up
sufficiently small and then spread it about.4
Ploughing in the early spring kept the peasant busy on his
strips, and once this was done, harrowing and then the sowing
of the spring corn (oats, barley) or the peas and beans followed.
Something has already been said about the problem of co-opera-
tion among the peasants, but a few more words may be added.
The plough was a comparatively light and simple affair, and in
many types of soil did not require a large plough team. There is
abundant evidence to show that it was possible to manage with
only a yoke of oxen or«*pair of horses, and this, it is arguable (at
the least) is what many men did do. They had, or could assemble,
a plough with two beasts to pull it, and with this could quite
well plough their strips. It is true that the ploughing was not
very deep, but it was all the ploughs of those days could manage.
Once the ground was ready the seeds were sown. These \vere
brought on to the field in a sack, and then a quantity from this
was placed in a wooden basket or box slung round the sower's
neck, or tied round the waist. This box was called a seed-lip, or
hopper,5 and from it the sower took seed and scattered it abroad
1 Walter of Henley, 19, 20, 101.
2 Ibid. 20.
3 Ibid. 143. Cf. Sixth Report Hist. MSS> Commission, 598.
* "Marie mendeth all manner of grounde, but it is costly." Fitzherbcrt,
Surveyenge, cap. 32.
5 Cf. Piers Plowman, B. VI, 63 :
"And hang myn hoper at myn hals in stede of a scrippe;
A busshel of bredcoroe brynge me ther-inne."