查看文章

Whilst manure and manuring have not been singled out for special study, for medieval economic historians regular mentions in the financial and legal records of each estate have meant that the subject has not been totally ignored either. Court rolls abound with references to the nuisance caused by dung stored on roads, or the failure of customary tenants to perform manuring duties on the demesne (Field 2004; Lock 1998; 2002). Expenditure on manuring appears regularly within manorial accounts, variously detailing the amount spent on carting and spreading muck, on the hiring of labour, and on the purchase and repair of equipment (Bailey 2002; Farr 1958; Titow 1969). Indeed, there is now a rich literature on the relationship between numbers and types of livestock, the quantity and quality of the dung that they could produce, and the effects that it had on cereal yields (Campbell 2000; Campbell & Overton 1991 …