| Production
| | New techniques improved agriculture. The plough and new harnesses made cultivation more efficient and demanded cooperation. The three field agriculture increased productivity. |
The cultivation of new land in the early Middle Ages was connected to the introduction of new tools and improved methods.
Jordbruksarbete | 
Eva spinner | 
Paradisets bönder | 
The Old Plough |
The Plough
Since the 500 B.C. they had turned the soil by means of a stick, which was reinforced with iron. The stick, which was called an ard, was dragged through the field and led the earth to the side. The ard was pulled by an ox with a strap, which was taken around the neck of the ox.
The invention of the plough was a vast improvement. The most important difference between the ard and the plough was that the plough had a ploughshare, which turned the earth to the side. The plough often had wheels and ploughed deeper into the ground. In this way the earth was not just scraped, but the weeds were destroyed and manure could be used. In addition it could cultivate the heavy clay grounds. But the wheel plough was very heavy and could not have been used it they had not begun to use new harnesses. Instead of just strapping a strap to the draught animal, they placed a wood construction (beech wood) around the neck of the ox. In this wood straps were fastened so the plough could be dragged through the heavy mould. This construction doubled the pulling power, but it also made it possible to harness more than one animal to the plough.
Arden | 
The Construction of the Plough | 
The Wheel Plough | 
The Construction of the Plough | 
Wheel Plough from Bornholm Around 1870 |
The Three-Furlong Agriculture
The wheel plough used up resources and demanded more draught animals than the farmer could own. The result was that whole towns began to use the land jointly. A gærde (area), which could be cultivated, was called a furlong. This was divided into fields, which the individual farmer had at his disposal. The so-called two-field farming had been in use for a long time. This meant that they cultivated in one field, while the other lay fallow. This was necessary in order not to exhaust the land. They alternated between the fields every other year. When the farmer´s field was to be ploughed they cut a furrow across the middle of the field. They aimed at long narrow fields, as they did not want to turn the heavy plough too often. When the first long furrow in the middle of the field was made, they turned the plough and made a furrow close to the first and turned the plough and made another one, and so on. They ploughed in this way year after year and this led to the fact that every field was higher in the middle and ditches were formed between the fields. Thus the ditches became clear boundaries in each furlong and it was easy to see the boundaries between the farmers´ fields. The ditches also functioned as drainage.
The two-field agriculture meant that half the land of the town was productive. When they discovered that different kinds of seeds required different nutrients in the earth, they understood that the exhaustion could be avoided by changing the seed. Thus they were able to sow rye one year and wheat another and it was enough with fallowing every third year, which meant the productivity increased. This system was called three-furlong agriculture and this required that the farmers´ fields were divided into three instead of two fields. This efficient model agriculture, which meant that two-thirds of the earth was productive had as much influence on the increased productivity as the introduction of the wheel plough.
The Village | 
One Field for Every Farm | 
The ploughing technique | 
Ploughed Field | 
Field Remains |
Højryggede agre | 
The Cultivation Structure of Ven | 
Work | 
The Sickle |
Lokal Differences
The three-furlong agriculture was not introduced everywhere, there were local variations and different systems of cultivation in different areas. In North Zealand and in Scania, where the farms were situated in the border area between forest and field, animal husbandry and hay harvesting dominated. Here they continued the two-furlong agriculture for a long period of time. |