Page:The English Peasant.djvu/158

 the area of the county is 478,792 acres, it follows that nearly one-third of its soil is given up to waste.

A century or two ago, when English agriculture had hardly emerged from the barbarous state in which it is found during feudal times, persons having common rights no doubt considered them a very valuable appendage to their farms. They were contented with the diminutive sheep and cattle which they raised upon them, little dreaming of the wonderful improvement which superior diet and careful breeding would one day effect. But now, when the great thing aimed at in pastoral science is the quality of the herds and flocks, it must be less than ever worth a farmer's while to turn his stock out to feed on the bare and boggy common. Except during summer-time, the cattle and sheep which are allowed to wander over these commons have a miserable and degenerate look. The author of the "Rural Economy of the Southern Counties" thus refers to the degeneracy which takes place in animals pastured on Surrey commons: "Those which are most conspicuous, on the barren flat heaths of Surrey, are small, mean-looking cattle. Yet they must be of a quality intrinsically good, or they could not exist on so bare a pasture. The breed of sheep &hellip; are, in general, small and ill-formed animals. Their mutton, however, is in high repute; and they are probably well-fleshed, having been starved into their present state."

Besides thus reducing the quality of his stock, the commoner is in continual danger of losing his animals, unless they are under the care of a herdsman or shepherd; or at all events of being fined by the wayward if they are found straying on the high road, or by the common-driver, should he come across the lost beast and impound it. Moreover, the practice of giving up the commons to geese is destructive of its use for cattle, for the latter turn away with disgust from land where geese have been.

Thus it appears that a common is of very little use to those who farm on a large scale and for profit, and of no use at all to the commoner who keeps a few beasts for his own service, since the cost of a man to watch them would swallow up any possible advantage.

It follows then that the only persons to whom the common is of use are the poor cottagers, who dwell upon it, and who can turn