Agriculture in Great Nortend

Agriculture is one of the major contributors to the œconomy of Great Nortend. Together with the forestry, fishing and mining industries, it makes up the primary sector of the œconomy, employing directly around a third of the working population. In the 2018–2019 civil year, agriculture accounted for 10·44 per cent of GDP. Approximately 60 per cent of the total inhabited area of the Erbonian Isles is used for agriculture, excluding managed woodlands and forests. Principally the agricultural sector of Great Nortend consists of de facto smallholdings organised on a manorial system practising mixed farming.

Landholdings

The Erbonian agricultural system operates under a system of feudal manorialism, where a feudal lord is granted land from the Sovereign, and then grants out holdings to his tenants. A transition away from feudal open-field communal farming occured as a result of the inclosure of the open fields to form smaller fields.

With enclosure, open field farming was no longer possible. Therefore, instead, enclosed fields were given to tenants to farm on an annual basis. The allocation was determined at the manorial sessions, by consensus. However, over the years, it was generally found that changing field allocations annually was undesirable, and therefore, allocations became fixed. The separate fields held by a single tenant farmer coalesced into an independent farm entity, although fields were and are not necessarily adjacent.

Naturally, the right to farm these farms became a sort of quasi-incorporeal hereditament, descendible and alienable inter vivos and per testamentum. They remained distinct from the actual legal property which the tenant farmers owned, in the form of their own messuage and curtillages, which generally was held under socage. As tenants sold smaller holdings to adjoining farmers, these farms grew although the land still remained common land.

Nowadays, an ordinary manor will consist of five or six farms on common land, as well as a large demesne home farm and yeoman estate farms. Common land farmers have rights over the remaining common land not used for arable and field farming. These include the hay meadows as well as pasture land. Most farms also have enclosed fields for orchards and/or market garden crops, which is not common land.

Production

Arable crops

The major corn crops are wheat in the south, and oats in the north. Rye and barley are also grown to a large extent throughout the country. Barley is used for malting and stock feed, although brown bread (barley bread) is a common staple in poorer areas. Rye is used to make black bread which is eaten amongst the poorer classes. Wheat is primarily used for flour to made white breads, cakes, biscuits and pastries. A percentage of wheat and barley is exported, valued at over 14 million pounds marten. Oats are mainly grown in the plains areas of Hambria and in northern Greater Erbonia, and are used for stock feed as well as porridge oats. Some maize is grown for cornstarch and as stock feed, but it is not common.

Hay is grown in communal hay meadows and allocated to the farms. Hay is mostly used on the farm to which it is allocated; however, a small amount is sold at market.

The growing of flax and the production of linen and flaxseed oil are important industries in Great Nortend, with Nortish linen being considered the best in the world. Flax is well-suited to growth in Lesser Erbonia, especially in the alluvial areas in the Walecestershire Flats and near the Bight of Orbus where over 40,000 acres are dedicated to the growing of flax producing around 130,000 cwt of linen thread annually. Other key growing regions include Heymeadshire in Greater Erbonia and in the Hambrian plateaux.

Horticulture

Vegetables and fruits are farmed across the country. The main field crops are potatoes, cabbages, carrots, onions, turnips, parsnips, peas, beans and the like. Mangold wurzels and beetroot are mainly grown in the south for stock feed.

Most farms have their own orchard closes as well. Apples and pears being the stalwarts for producing cider and especially, perry, in the eastern counties of Nortend and in Cardoby. Other common orchard crops are quinces, cherries, apricots, plums, peaches and medlars.

Garden fruits and vegetables are mainly grown for domestic use and not for commercial sale. However, in Lesser Erbonia and the southern areas of Greater Erbonia, large market gardens producing small fruits and vegetables such as berries, currants, tomatoes, lettuce, radishes, kale, broccoli, sweet corn, pumpkins, squash, watermelons, cucumbers, cherries and celery are widespread, sending produce by rail to towns and cities across the country. In particular, Aceshire is known for its gooseberries, raspberries and currants, whereas Larkshire is known for watercress, lettuce and radishes.

Floriculture in the form of the production of cut flowers is a burgeoning international and domestic trade which many land-owners especially in southern Greater Erbonia, have taken up. Fields of tulips, daffodils, peonies, gerberas, orchids, violets, pansies, roses, ranunculus, lilies, sweet peas, foxgloves and other ornamental cut flowers are a common sight around Enley, Duremenshire, Aceshire and Haxoshire where they are grown on the large demesne farms of the landed gentry and aristocracy.

Pastoral farming

Cattle farming is very strong in Lesser Erbonia and the the south, south-west and middle north of Greater Erbonia, and scattered elsewhere. Dairy cows account for the majority of cattle farmed, however small herds of beef cattle are commonplace across the country. Nortish beef and veal production is greater than actual consumption, and thus over 13 million pounds marten worth is exported abroad. Milk, butter and cheese production is also high, and over 20 million pounds marten worth is exported.

Sheep farming is prominent in hilly and mountainous terrain, such as in the Monmorians, where a form of transhumance is practised, as well as more undulating lands such as the many welds and hills where corn cropping would be difficult, especially in much of mountainous Hambria and Greater Erbonia. Wool is significant economically, and is one of the main export goods for Great Nortend in the form of spun and woven woollen cloth and raw wool, accounting for around 12 million pounds marten in exports. Combined with another 12 million from lamb and mutton exports, the ovine industry accounts for over 24 million pounds marten in exports.

Forestry

Forestry is an important part of Erbonian agriculture. Around 32 per cent of total land is set aside as managed woodland under a system of coppicing or pollarding. This provides a steady source of wood timber for sundry uses as furniture making, thatch-staff making, fencing, tool-handles, poles and importantly, firewood. There are also large woodlands and royal forests dedicated for the production of larger wood, as well as large, economically important mixed plantation forests of cedar, birch, poplar, ash, alder, beech and most importantly, oak and elm. The woods and forests of Great Nortend also support the rearing of pigs which exercise rights of pannage. Many woods with rights of warren, as well as royal forests, are also used for hunting purposes.

Mechanisation

See also: Lord Cane's Acts

Erbonian farms are not considered overly mechanised, insofar as the majority of the preparation, planting, weeding and harvesting of field crops is done by draught beast drawn machinery or even by hand. The status quo is enforced under the Second Agricultural Practices Act, 33 Edm. IX. p. 92, which was passed by the Foide government in its first term in response to the threat posed to rural society by increasingly mechanised labour. The Act forbids the use of „mechanical or fumous engines or any other proscribed contraption” in the cultivation of land, sowing of seeds and harvest of crops, ostensibly to protect it from pollution and waste, without special permission from the Crown. It also forbids the use of artificial fertilisers and the „waste” of arable land by over-cropping and soil degradation. The Act was introduced following a Royal Commission and public campaign by the Royal Countryside Society, notably patronised by Queen Lucilia, arising over concerns widespread mechanisation could lead to the loss of over two million livelihoods as well as cause damage to the fertility of the soil.