ABSTRACT
In recent years the crucial importance of the seventeenth century as the germinative period for agricultural improvement has become appreciated. In the seventeenth century Oxfordshire was, with the exception of a small area of Chiltern country in the extreme south, an almost entirely open-field county; but this does not mean that it was an isolated backwater of subsistence farming. In the upland regions beans and vetches were rare, and peas almost universal; but in the Thames valley farmers sometimes grew quite a variety of pulses. The increase in the production of wheat and pulses took place largely at the expense of barley. By the early eighteenth century field division had become complex, particularly in the north of the county. In conclusion, the evidence, when taken altogether, suggests that there was an ascending spiral of progress. It began with an increase in the area of grassland by means of leys.
