nd plant them; when arable strips fail to produce good
crops, lay them to grass. Lea ground, "the whiche hath ben errable
land of late" should be plowed up.

And if a man haue plentie of suche pasture, that wil be mossie
euery thyrd yere, lette hym breake vp a newe piece of gronde, and
plowe it and sowe it (as I haue seyde before), and he shal haue
plentye of corne, with littell dongynge, and sow it no lengar
thu it will beare plentye of corne, without donge, and it will
beare much better grasse, x or xii yere after.... Reyst grounde
if it be dry, will bringe much corne, for the mosse will rotte,
and the moll hillockes will amende the ground wel.[105]

Tusser's references to the practice of plowing up lea ground and
laying other land to grass are so incidental as to be good evidence of
the fact that this was not merely the recommendation of a theorist,
but a common practice, the details of which were familiar to those for
whom he intended his book. A passage in which he refers to the laying
to grass of land in need of rest has already been quoted.[106] In
discussing the date at which plowing should take place he mentions the
plowing up of lea land as well as of fallow.[107]

The superior value of enclosed pasture to open-field leas, and of
enclosed arable to open-field arable, is not only asserted by
Fitzherbert and others who are urging husbandmen to enclose their
land, but appears also when manorial surveys are examined. It would
seem, therefore, that the tenants would have been anxious to carry the
process to an end and enclose their land. Undoubtedly the larger
holders were desirous of making the change, but as long as the rights
of the lesser men were respected, it was almost impossible to carry it
out. The adjustment of conflicting and obscure claims was generally
held to be an insuperable obstacle, even by those who urged the change
most strongly, while those who on principle opposed anything in the
way of enclosure took comfort in the fact that holdings were so
intermixed that there was little prospect of accomplishing the change:

Wheare (men) are intercominers in comon feildes and also haue
theare portions so intermingled with an other that, thoughe they
would, they could not inclose anie parte of the saide feldes so
long as it is so.[108]

Just as the services of a promoter are needed in the formation of a
modern industrial combination, pres