How was farming done in the 1200's?

Answer 1

They mostly used push plows to turn the soil and only the wealthiest people had oxen to pull their plows. Instead of using fertilizer, they rotated crops from year to year allowing one field to lay fallow, or unused, for the year. Very few people owned their land and owed part of their harvest to the land owner. They cut their grain with sythes and did everything by hand. Sowing the seeds, cutting the grain, threshing the grain and sometimes even milling the grain by hand, but by then they had mills that were water or wind powered.
I remembered most of that from school, but I finally found this link that has some other information:
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0096985.html
This link is great, but you'll need to allow pop-ups so you can see the info:
http://www.historyonthenet.com/Medieval_Life/farming.htm

Answer 2

Ridge and furrow and crop rotation. In the Medieval period, a common method of ploughing was by ridge-and-furrow, sometimes also known as rig-and-furrow. This distinctive method involved a plough being drawn by oxen or horse, creating a furrow. On the ridges between each of the furrows the crops were planted. This sort of ploughing occurred in the context of Medieval strip fields, which were long narrow strips of land exploited by farmers. Although we commonly associate ridge-and-furrow ploughing with the Medieval period, it occurred also in the nineteenth century and therefore the presence of ridge-and-furrow alone cannot be taken as conclusive proof of Medieval agriculture. The origins of ridge-and-furrow farming lie in the onset of open-field farming and probably extends back into the late Saxon era.

Peasants did all the farm work for the Lord of the Manor, but were allotted a few strips of land for their own use. The strips were dotted about in each field so that good and bad soil was shared out equally. The land was ploughed in long strips because the ploughs were difficult to turn.

Crop growing areas around villages were usually divided into three big fields. One field was sown with wheat in winter, the second was sown with rye, barley or oats in spring and the third would be left empty, or fallow, so it could recover its strength.

Answer 3

Considering Europe, landlords and the church were the owners of the land.
They kept at least 50% of the products and only left the farmers keep enough to reseed next year and to eat.
These kind of politics lead to the known revolutions.
They ruled the world by fear.
Fear of being killed by other populations (landlords).
Fear of God (the Church).
Plowing with or without animals, no seed treatments, taking off weeds by hand, no fertilizers, no irrigation, etc.
Total misery.
Everything went to build castles and churchs.

Answer 4

Without artificial pesticides or machinery.
That's a pretty broad question. No one is going to come on here and write you an essay on 13th century agriculture.
One tip though, the Church and Crown were the largest landowners in Britain, and most of Western Europe.

Answer 5

The ground was opened up seed were planted in it and cow manure was mixed with it then they waited for things to grow, and the crop was harvested.
BB

Answer 6

Jethro Tulls seed drill

Answer 7

Better than it is today, since there are still farm animals around to tell the tale......... but for how much longer? hey farmers?

Answer 8

well there are a lot of things like horses and slaves


you might want to google it-----it would be easier

Answer 9

Blood sweat and tears.

Answer 10

by hand.and with the help of horses