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prevailing opinion in Lithuanian historiography on rather small areas
of arable land in the 16 th century Samogitia.
The data show that special attention should be paid to the dynamics
of change in arable areas. The average number of cultivated land plots
showed a declining tendency within the entire period under analysis.
Even if it should be associated with objective factors, such as the
Livonian War, epidemics, etc, it also shows the extensive character of
this branch of agriculture, which could have been determined by other
reasons as well. It should also be noted that the researchers of Polish
and Livonian manorial farms recorded the same tendency in the 16 th
century – first half of the 17 th century as well.
Apart from the four types of grain crops – rye, wheat, barley and
aot – which, as a tradition, are mentioned in the manors under
analysis, pease and buckwheat cultivated in crop fields played a rather
important role in Samogitia as well. On the average, 0.3 barrel of
pease and 1.4 barrels of buckwheat were sowed per manor. The plants
grown at vegetable and fruit gardens did not play a more significant
role at that time. Even though the sources include quite extensive
information on them, we may presume that the products of vegetable
gardens were mostly used for local needs. Among the vegetables
grown in vegetable gardens, cabbages, cucumbers, carrots and
parsnips were more important. Turnips and beetroots, which were
particularly popular in Western Europe and played a significant role in
local farms at that time, were cultivated to a far lesser degree. The
range of vegetables show that the vegetables of the highest nutritional
value and the vegetables, which could be stored for the longest
periods, were mostly preferred. Fruit gardens did not yet play a
significant role in Samogitia in the 16 th century; hence, their numbers,
sizes and agricultural value were rather trivial.
Hay production was yet another important branch of crop
production. It was essential to the manors, which were quite actively
engaged in stock-raising. However, the information of the sources
show that apart from the mentioned function, the produced hay used to
be sold as well – that was also characteristic of manors in certain
neighbouring regions.
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