[elainann]

I am a matured student, and after many years in the wilderness, have decided to try for a GCSE History (social and economic history

the module I am on now is Agricculture 1700-1900

Open-field Farming,

I have got to first of all list the advantages of the open-field farming system followed by the disadvantages, and it also ask mr to state why I consider these to be advantage or a disavantage. my tutor on this course also mentions perhaps a good way to tackle the question is to list the advantage that I consider to be the most important one firstly and then go on to the others. and the same with the advantages. also he is asking me to bring out the most notable ones first. also I have to explain them in more detail, I just dont know where to start on this,. can anyone help me or give me some tips for writing this out.

Elainann

[MrJohnDClare]

The process on all these kid of comparison/debate essays is:

DESCRIBE -- EXPLAIN -- ASSESS

So with the advantages and disadvantages of Open Field farming, for each point:
1. Describe the point
2. explain why it was a good/bad thing
3. guage how good/bad it was - the importance/significance for famers.

Some points-to-make here.
but I'll leave you to assess how important each one was.
I think the trick will be to assess how much effect it would have had on helping/hindering production.


(Just as an aside, you know, don't get over-excited about enclosures and their effect. There were only 7899 Acts of Enclosure in the 114 years, 1720-1834 - about 70 a year - so there was hardly an overwhelming flood of enclosures. Most of them (3081) took place during the wars with France (1790-1815) and were simply an attempt to expand the area of cultivation to increase production during the war. Almost all took place only in the east and midlands - the north and west had enclosed much earlier, in the 17th century and before. And of course an enclosure, even of the open fields, did NOT automatically imply an improvement in technique - when do you think the last working team of oxen were ploughing the soil on one British farm?)