Medieval Farming, Slaves

The system of labour and of rent which develops on a medieval manor is also immensely variable. It is further complicated by the fact that part of any manor (the demesne) is farmed by the lord on his own account, using peasant labour, and part is cultivated by the peasants for their subsistence.

Paying the lord some form of rent, whether in natural produce, days and weeks of their own labour, or money.

First were the peasants or serfs who raised the food. "Serfs were peasant farmers who were neither fully free nor slaves. They could not leave the village, sell an ox, or marry without the lord of the manor's permissions.

The saying "by hook and by crook" comes from the Middle Ages when villagers were only allowed to take dead wood, not cut down trees or bushes. Fallen timber and dead wood could be cleared and pulled out with a shepherd?s crook or a weeding hook, ergo, "by hook or by crook".

Farming Slaves, Weeding, Ploughing, Seeds, Irrigation, Sickles, Threshing, Wheat, Barley, Millet, Oats, Rye, Olive Trees, Grapevines