The arable land was at first divided into separate fields ( ager ) called in German Wang , Kamp , Gewanne , or Esch . This fieldwas surrounded by a wooden fence or by a ditch, in the construction of which all were bound to assist. The chief of thevillage summoned all the inhabitants for this purpose, at certain fixed periods, and the work was the occasion for a publicholiday. This practice has been preserved almost up to our own days in the Dutch province of Drenthe and in Westphalia.
There we find the Eschen distinctly marked out in the midst of the heath; as masses of litter are being constantly broughtfrom the stables to manure it, the earth is raised several yards. When the triennial rotation of crops was introduced intoGermany,which must have taken place before the time of Charlemagne, as it appears in the Capitularies as completelyestablished,the winter, summer, and fallow fields were distinguished by different names: Winterfeld , Sommerfeld , and Brachfeld , or campus apertus . Each of these fields was in turn sown with rye, then with oats, and finally left to lie for a year.
It was divided into long strips all bordering, on one side, on the road left for agricultural purposes. These parcels were called deel , schiften , in the North; in England, oxgang and shifting severalties ; elsewhere, loos , lus or lots . Traces of the systemare still visible on all sides in Germany. We have but to cross the country, and see the long strips of cultivated land,stretching parallel and side by side with one another, often arranged round a circle. The parcels in each field had to be tilledat the same time, devoted to the same crops, and abandoned to common pasture at the same period, according to the rule of Flurzwang , or compulsory rotation. The inhabitants assembled to deliberate on all that concerned the cultivation, and todetermine the order and time of the various agricultural operations. This custom, which is general in those provinces ofRussia where village communities exist. was, until quite recently, in practice in certain districts of Westphalia, Hanover, andHolland.
Some writers have refused to allow that there were lots cast for the parcels to be distributed; but there are numerousevidences of the fact. (18) In the first place, the parcels were in German called Loosgut , for which the Latin translation is sors .
In the Burgundian law, the terms sors and terra are used synonymously. Possessors of portions in the same villagecommunity were called consortes , some, in many cases, being Germans, and the others Romans. The law of the Vizigoths x.
t. 1, c. 2, 1 speaks of sortes Gothicae and sortes Romance . From this practice of drawing lots our word lot is derived, whichat the present day merely denotes a portion of land. The German conquerors, however, probably soon abandoned theperiodical partition, which was an institution little in harmony with the condition of the Roman society in the midst of whichthey established themselves.
Of this there seems to be no doubt, that periodical partition by lot remained in practice, from the most remote ages down toour own time, in certain villages of Germany, and in some localities in Scotland. In the villages of Saarholzbach, Wadern,Beschweiler, Zerf, Kell, Paschel, Lampaden, Franzenheim, Pluwig, and others, in the district of Trèves, the houses, with thegardens adjoining them, were alone subject to private ownership. (19) Arable land of all kinds was periodically divided by lot.
This system was kept up in Saarholsbach until 1863. In the other communes private property was introduced between 1811and 1834, by means of the operation of registration. In the majority of communes in the valley of the Moselle and the Saar,partition by lot ceased about the end of the last century to be applied to arable land: but was still practised for the meadowand woods.
Many of the communes of Eifel, a cold and elevated district, lying between the Rhine and Belgian Ardennes, divide the largewastes belonging to them in the same way. Each lot is put in cultivation for a year and then returns into the common pastureland. In the district of Siegen, the communes possess splendid oak coppices, which are cut every twenty years, and supplyfuel, and hark for tan. When the underwood is carried away, the surface is burned, and so yields without further manuring agood harvest of rye. The portion of these woods to be cut each year is divided into parcels, which are distributed by lotamong the inhabitants.
