In the villages of the Saar and the Moselle the partition was effected at first every three years, then every six, and finallyevery twelve or eighteen. The periods of re-distribution thus constantly tending to grow longer, the custom of individualownership began to establish itself, and insensibly took the place of the ancient community. The custom of partition washowever so deeply rooted, that it was resorted to from time to time after long intervals. Thus in the village of Losheim nodivision was effected from 1655 to 1724: but in the latter year the commune determined to re-establish the division of theland, "seeing that, in consequence of deaths and marriages, the parcels have become so small that even the richest inhabitantscannot properly manure and improve their portions of land, by reason of their being so small and scattered." M. A. Meitzenhas given, in his great work Le Sol de la culture en Prusse , a plan of partition in the commune of Saarholzbach, in which themethod of division is clearly shewn. The arable land is divided into rectangular fields, each of which is subdivided intoparcels. A lot is formed by uniting several of these parcels. In 1862, the commune counted 98 co-partners, and its 104hectares (or 260 acres) of arable land were divided into 1,916 parcels. But every holding was not necessarily of the sameextent one was 23 morgen, another 5? and another only 2? It also possessed forest and a great extent of waste land: thesewere divided every year. In Nassau the commune of Frichofen possessed several common tracts, which were divided everyyear among the inhabitants by lot. (20) The same custom was maintained, until our own times, in several communes ofHundsrück and of the districts of Ohtteiler and of Saarlouis, between the Saar and the Moselle. The same custom is alsofound in the Bavarian Palatinate.
The division of land by lot was still so generally practised in Germany in the middle ages, that Silesian documents of thethirteenth century, quoted by M. Meitzen, call this custom mos theutonicus . The collection of Danish laws, compiled aboutthe middle of the same century, speaks of the partition of lands by lot as a custom generally followed. In many Englishvillages meadows are still found divided into parts, which are annually assigned by lot among the co-partners. (21) They arecalled lot meadows and lammas land . In Friesland and in Over-Yssel in Holland, meadows are also found, in which thevarious parcels are mown by the different co-proprietors in succession. More rarely portions of the amble land pass from oneto the other in succession, and for this reason are called shifting severalties in England. It is not uncommon for a group ofcultivators to rent land, of which they occupy each part in turn: this is the custom known by the name of run-ring .
Sometimes the apportionment is not effected by lot, but according to a rotation determined once for all. When the hay is cutand carried, the rights of the common pasture revive, and all the inhabitants come and throw down the inclosures which havebeen erected. It is an occasion of holiday and public rejoicing, called lammas day . According to M. Dareste de La Chavanne,tradition of the equal division of certain portions of the soil was constantly preserved in France. Thus, whenever a newagricultural colony was formed in the middle ages, we find the ancient communal system. There is a curious example of thisfact in a grant made by the Abbey of Saint Claude to the inhabitants of Longchaumois: experts, elected for the purpose,were to divide among the younger members the lands to which they were entitled.
