Convertible husbandry, also known as alternate husbandry or up-and-down husbandry, is a method of

farming Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

whereby strips of arable farmland were temporarily converted into grass

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Types of pasture Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, c ...

, known as leys. These remained under grass for up to 10 years before being ploughed under again, while some eventually became permanent pasturage. It was a process used during the 16th century through the 19th century by "which a higher proportion of land was used to support increasing numbers of

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

in many parts of

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

."Broad, John, "Alternate Husbandry and Permanent Pasture in the Midlands, 1650 – 1800", '' The Agricultural History Review'', Vol. 28, No. 2, pg 77-78, British Agricultural Society; 1980. Its adoption was an important component of the

British Agricultural Revolution The British Agricultural Revolution, or Second Agricultural Revolution, was an unprecedented increase in agricultural production in Britain arising from increases in labor and land productivity between the mid-17th and late 19th centuries. Agricu ...

.Kerridge, Eric, ''The Agricultural Revolution'', Taylor and Francis US; 1967, pg 40. Ley farming, a similar system of growing

fodder Fodder (), also called provender (), is any agriculture, agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, domestic rabbit, rabbits, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. "Fodder" refers particularly to food ...

fallow Fallow is a farming technique in which arable land is left without sowing for one or more vegetative cycles. The goal of fallowing is to allow the land to recover and store Organic compound, organic matter while retaining moisture and disrupting ...

plots of

arable land Arable land (from the , "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for the purposes of a ...

, remains in use today.

Description

Convertible husbandry was a process that consisted of keeping arable land fallow for long periods as

for

. This system utilized

fertilizer A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from liming materials or other non-nutrient soil amendments. Man ...

in the form of animal manure. Fertilizer was used in greater quantities due to the increase in animal husbandry and resulted in benefiting crop yields when it was time for

tillage Tillage is the agriculture, agricultural preparation of soil by mechanical wikt:agitation#Noun, agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of manual labour, human-powered tilling methods using hand tools inc ...

. Farmers sowed

specific Specific may refer to: * Specificity (disambiguation) * Specific, a cure or therapy for a specific illness Law * Specific deterrence, focussed on an individual * Specific finding, intermediate verdict used by a jury in determining the final ...

grass seeds to control the quality of their pasture.

Historical context

Before the 16th and 17th centuries, most farmlands in Britain used simple alternations of tilling and fallowing during different seasons over several years, while livestock was often kept on less productive land and

commons The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons ...

. However, in the

Midlands The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...

the rising population, density of settlements, lack of new areas into which cultivation could expand, and the 15th century

enclosure Enclosure or inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or "common land", enclosing it, and by doing so depriving commoners of their traditional rights of access and usage. Agreements to enc ...

s of sheep flocks, led to a system of agriculture with increasing numbers of livestock. A possible factor that influenced the adoption of convertible husbandry was the changing skill levels of workers. In the words of historian Eric Kerridge, the combination of "floating of water-meadows, the substitution of up-and-down husbandry for permanent tillage and permanent grass or for shifting cultivation, the introduction of new fallow crops and selected grasses,

marsh In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in genera ...

drainage, manuring, and stock breeding" were essential innovations of the

. Although often praised as increasing yields and efficiency, this is debatable. Yields were often poor in the

late Middle Ages The late Middle Ages or late medieval period was the Periodization, period of History of Europe, European history lasting from 1300 to 1500 AD. The late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period ( ...

and approximately equivalent to regular common fields. It was not always adaptable to the type of land or soil at all locations. Kitsikopoulos argues it was the introduction of fodder

legume Legumes are plants in the pea family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seeds of such plants. When used as a dry grain for human consumption, the seeds are also called pulses. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consum ...

s, such as

clover Clovers, also called trefoils, are plants of the genus ''Trifolium'' (), consisting of about 300 species of flowering plants in the legume family Fabaceae originating in Europe. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution with the highest diversit ...

, in the

early modern period The early modern period is a Periodization, historical period that is defined either as part of or as immediately preceding the modern period, with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity. There i ...

which eventually truly achieved greater agricultural productivity. Although debatable, many agricultural historians also believe that the introduction of convertible husbandry was brought about with the introduction of the

turnip The turnip or white turnip ('' Brassica rapa'' subsp. ''rapa'') is a root vegetable commonly grown in temperate climates worldwide for its white, fleshy taproot. Small, tender varieties are grown for human consumption, while larger varieties a ...

. They argue that "the lowly turnip made possible a change in crop rotation which did not require much capital, but which brought about a tremendous rise in agricultural productivity."Timmer, C. Peter, "The Turnip, New Husbandry, and The English Agricultural Revolution", ''

The Quarterly Journal of Economics ''The Quarterly Journal of Economics'' is a Peer review, peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Oxford University Press for the Harvard University Department of Economics. Its current editors-in-chief are Robert J. Barro, Lawrence F. Kat ...

'', Vol. 83, No. 3 (Aug., 1969), pp. 375-395 They believe that this "fodder" crop pushed agriculture in a direction in which "alternating" husbandry was seen as more efficient than traditional permanent pasture farming and jump-started the improvement of

crop rotation Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of different types of crops in the same area across a sequence of growing seasons. This practice reduces the reliance of crops on one set of nutrients, pest and weed pressure, along with the pro ...

and agricultural output versus capital. Although the turnip was popularized by Lord Townshend during the mid-18th century, the use of turnips being grown as fodder was seen as early as the 16th century.

Praise

Convertible husbandry has been praised as the "best way to keep high fertility on both arable and pasture and to retain excellent soil texture and composition." Slicher van Bath, B.H., "Agrarian History of Western Europe", 1963, pp 249-54. According to one author, the rotation it provided between pasture and arable land "not only produced the same amount of grain on a much reduced area, but broke the agrarian cycle of diminished returns by allowing more sheep and cattle to be kept, animals whose dung maintained" fertility.

References

{{agriculture footer Agriculture Agricultural terminology Agricultural economics Agronomy

Description

Historical context

Praise

See also

References