\paperw5085 \margr0\margl0\ATXph16380 \plain \fs20 \pard\tx3255\tx6525\tx9780\ATXts240\ATXbrdr0 \f1 \fs22 During ShakespeareÆs youth and early adulthood, considerable innovations
were made in farming and rural life. The marshes of East Anglia were drained by means of a complex system of ditches and small canals which removed water to the rivers, sometimes with the help of wind-pumps. Elsewhere, valleys were artificially enrich
ed by introducing silt, and new crops such as carrots and rape, a\ATXnt901 European herb from the mustard\ATXnt0 family, could be cultivated on a larger scale. Small-scale land-owners or tenant farmers were called yeomen. If their land was worth ú2 p
er year, they had the right to vote for Parliament and also often served as jurors, constables and churchwardens. As time went on, consolidated land-holdings were created by enclosing what had once been communal land with hedges or ditches. This tended
to leave the rural poor without sufficient means for sustenance, and by the same token provided a labour force for the nascent cottage industries. In fact cottage industries were a predominant feature of early modern production. Whole families would b
e involved in such forms of home-manufacture to produce shoes, pots, leather goods or cloth.\par
