![]() ![]() Later, especially in grain-producing areas, a three-field system was devised-one field for spring planting, one for autumn planning, and the third lying fallow. The oldest method of cultivation was the two-field system, alternating crops and fallow so that fertility could be recovered. The medieval manor usually produced only what was needed to feed its own population. Though conditions varied widely, we are not far wrong if we think of the late Roman latifundium becoming the medieval manor and the late Roman coloni becoming the medieval serfs. While the coloni were not slaves, they could not leave the ground they cultivated, nor could their children. The tenant farmers, or coloni, were often descendants of small landowners who had turned over their holdings to the magnate in exchange for a guarantee of protection and a percentage of the crop. In late Roman times, as we have seen, the large estate, owned by a magnate and worked by tenant farmers, had been called a latifundium. Most of the other 90 percent of the people worked the land. Even if we include their dependents, the total would hardly reach 10 percent of the population of Europe. These complex arrangements directly involved only the governing class who fought on horseback as mounted knights and whose fiefs consisted of landed property known as manors or estates.
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