III. THE THREE FIELDS, OR 'ZELGEN.'

The three fields.

Next as to the division of the arable land into fields—generally three fields[565]—representing the annual rotation of crops.

The homage of the Hitchin Manor presented that the common fields within the township had immemoriably been and ought to be kept and cultivated in three successive seasons of—

The three fields are elsewhere commonly known as the—

Universally, the fallow ends at the autumn sowing of the wheat crop of the next season, which is hence called 'winter corn.'

The word etch, or eddish, or edish, occurs in Tusser, and means the stubble of the previous crop [p377] of whatever kind. Thus, in the 'Directions for February,' he says,—

Etch-grain sown on the stubble of a previous crop.

'Eat etch, ere ye plow,

With hog, sheep, and cow.' [566]

This is evidently to prepare the stubble of the last year's corn crop for the spring sown bean or other crop; for under the same month he says,—

Go plow in the stubble, for now is the season

For sowing of vetches, of beans, and of peason.[567]

In the directions for the October sowing are the following lines:—

Seed first go fetch

For edish, or etch.

White wheat if ye please,

Sow now upon pease.[568]

And again,—

When wheat upon eddish ye mind to bestow

Let that be the first of the wheat ye do sow.

· · · · · ·

White wheat upon pease-etch doth grow as he would,

But fallow is best if we did as we should.

· · · · · ·

When peason ye had and a fallow thereon,

Sow wheat ye may well without dung thereupon.[569]

Tilth-grain sown on the fallow.

'Etch-grain' is therefore the crop, generally oats or beans, sown in spring after ploughing the stubble of the wheat crop, which itself was best sown if possible upon the fallow, and so was called the 'tilth-grain.'

Breach-corn.

The oats or beans grown on the wheat stubble were sometimes called 'Breach-corn,' and Breach-land was land prepared for a second crop.[570] [p378]

Where shall we find these words and things on the Continent?

Looking to the Latin words used for the three fields, it is obvious that these were sometimes regarded as three separate ploughings—araturæ, or culturæ,—or as so many sowings—sationes,[571]—just as in the north of England they are called 'falls,' or 'fallows,' which have to be ploughed.

Names for the three fields, 'Felder,' 'Sationes,' 'Zelgen.'

In North Germany, where they occur, they are generally simply called 'felder;' [572] in France around Paris they were called in the ninth century 'sationes;' [573] but in South Germany and Switzerland the usual word for each field is Zelg, which Dr. Landau connects with the Anglo-Saxon 'tilgende' (tilling), and the later English 'tilth,' one of the Hitchin words. And he says that Zelg strictly means only the ploughed field[574] (aratura), though used for all the three. The three fields were thus spoken of as three tilths. The word 'Zelg' we have already found in the St. Gall charters in the eighth century, and Dr. Landau points out other instances of the same date of its use in the districts of Swabia, the middle Rhine, and later in the Inn Valley.

'Esch,' and the Gothic 'Attisk.'

On the other hand, in Westphalia, in Baden, and especially in Upper Swabia and Upper Bavaria, as far as the river Isar, and also in Switzerland, the word Esch is the one in use,[575] the word being used in [p379] Westphalia, also for the whole arable area.[576] Esch also was in use at the date of the earliest form of the Bavarian laws (in the seventh century). The hedge put up in defence of the sown field is there called an 'ezzisczun.' [577] Still earlier, in the fourth century, further East the open fields seem to have been called 'attisk;' for Ulphilas, in his translation of Mark ii. 23, speaks of the disciples walking over the 'attisk'—i.e. over the 'etch,' or 'eddish'—instead of as in the Anglo-Saxon translation over the 'æcera.' Here, therefore, we have another of the Hitchin words.

'Brachfrichte.'

These words point to connexion with South Germany.

In Hesse, according to Dr. Landau, the three fields are spoken of as—

On the Main, in the fifteenth century, they were spoken of as—

In Elsass, in the fourteenth century, and on the Danube—

were used, and Dr. Landau says that Esch is sometimes put in contrast with 'Brach.' [578] Whatever may be [p380] the exact meaning of the word Brach—whether referring to the breaking of the rotation or the breaking of the stubble—there can be no doubt of the identity of the word with the English Breach and Breach-corn.

It appears, therefore, that in South Germany, and especially in the districts once Roman province, the three fields representing the rotation of crops for many centuries have been known by names closely resembling those used in England.