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Why did medieval farmers grow peas or beans on their land for one out of every three years?
It was crop rotation so the soil can replenish the nitrogen.
How has human use of soil changed through history?
Humans first started to grow their plants in the soil. They put fertilizers and nutrition in it for their plant. They made houses of soil in stoneage. But today, human use lots of water so soil gets weathered everyday. Human are ruining soil.
When were there serfs?
AnswerSerfs (slaves) have been around for centuries. It was common practice to take men as slaves when they lost a battle or when their villages were raided. The word "serf" is Latin for slave. In the middle ages and before pirates were often the people who were in the slave business. They sold and shipped people all over Europe. AnswerSerfdom might be said to have begun with an edict by the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great in 322 AD, when free tenant farmers, called coloni, were bound to the soil they worked. They were still free, in most respects, but they were not allowed to move off the land or move to other ways of life. This was the condition of Europe when the Roman Empire fell, and it was to some degree adopted by the Germanic tribes that took over Roman territories, as many Roman practices were. The dominant power of western Europe during the following four hundred years was the kingdom, and then the empire, built by the Franks, but, aside from the reign of Charlemagne from 768 to 814 AD, it was never well centralized. Indeed, it was divided immediately on his death, and became two nations, one of which, France, though nominally centralized, was effectively under the control of a variety of local lords, and the other, the Holy Roman Empire, was never centralized at all. This further entrenched feudalism, because feudalism was a system of mutual obligation through a hierarchical system of leadership that worked fairly well in a decentralized society.
What class is a serf?
Serfs were in their own class of people who were not free, but also not slaves. They were not bought or sold, but were bound to the soil they lived on and could not legally leave it. They were in a state of mutual obligation with the lords of the manors. They provided the lords with part of the crop in exchange for their place to live and work and a measure of protection and security. The lord of the manor was not allowed to sell them or move them away, because that would violate his part of the deal.
Why were mouldboard ploughs more efficient in the middle age?
Medieval ploughs were made in many different ways, according to local soil conditions. The mouldboard plough was used in heavy soils such as clays and its main benefit was in turning the soil aside, producing distinctive ridges and furrows - the crops were then grown on the ridges and water could drain away into the furrows. A drawback in the design was that the wooden mouldboard could become clogged with soil, meaning that the plough was less efficient and much harder to move. Many ploughmen took along a carpenter's axe (also known as a T-axe) and hung this on the beam of the plough, just behind the oxen. It was used to clean off the mouldboard whenever it became clogged. I have a number of manuscript illustrations from the 12th century showing this axe hung on the plough-beam (in one case the ploughman carries it in his hand).
