Note 149 — Chapter IV · THE OPEN FIELD SYSTEM TRACED IN SAXON TIMES—THE SCATTERING OF THE STRIPS ORIGINATED IN THE METHODS OF CO-ARATION.
Reading edition
Ancient Laws, p. 153. (Venedotian Code.)
XXIV. Of Co-tillage this treats.
1. Whoever shall engage in co-tillage with another, it is right for them to give surety for performance, and mutually join hands; and, after they have done that, to keep it until the tye be completed: the tye is twelve erws.
2. The measure of the erw, has it not been before set forth?
3. The first erw belongs to the ploughman; the second to the irons; the third to the exterior sod ox; the fourth to the exterior sward ox, lest the yoke should be broken; and the fifth to the driver: and so the erws are appropriated, from best to best, to the oxen, thence onward, unless the yoke be stopped between them, unto the last; and after that the plough erw, which is called the plough-bote cyvar; and that once in the year
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10. Every one is to bring his requisites to the ploughing, whether ox, or irons, or other things pertaining to him; and after everything is brought to them, the ploughman and the driver are to keep the whole safely, and use them as well as they would their own.
The driver is to yoke in the oxen carefully, so that they be not too tight, nor too loose; and drive them so as not to break their hearts: and if damage happen to them on that occasion, he is to make it good; or else swear that he used them not worse than his own.
12. The ploughman is not to pay for the oxen, unless they be bruised by him; and if he bruise either one or the whole, let him pay, or exonerate himself. The ploughman is to assist the driver in yoking the oxen; but he is to loosen only the two short-yoked.
13. After the co-tillage shall be completed, every one is to take his requisites with him home.
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16. If there should be a dispute about bad tillage between two co-tillers, let the erw of the ploughman be examined as to the depth, length, and breadth of the furrow, and let every one's be completed alike.
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28. Whoever shall own the irons is to keep them in order, that the ploughman and driver be not impeded; and they are to have no assistance.
The driver is to furnish the bows of the yokes with wythes; and, if it be a long team, the small rings, and pegs of the bows.
See also Gwentian Code, p. 354; and the Leges Wallice, p. 801.