The technique of writing agricultural history at a local level, particularly that of a village, parish or district, differs from that of dealing on a broader scale with the farming of larger regions. In particular, problems can be investigated and sources searched in a detail not practicable for a county or even a large region. Indeed, it may be felt that only the minute examination of large numbers of individual parishes, villages, or estates can provide the sort of information from which a really reliable picture of agriculture in a larger area may eventually be drawn. Local historians interested in this topic will wish to be able to provide, where possible, various sorts of information at different periods of time. They will wish, for example, to find out the area and composition of the manors in terms of demesne, villein, and freehold land; details of field systems and crop rotations, and the kinds of crops and their relative importance; evidence of land farmed in severalty and common, of leys in the open fields, and of consolidation of holdings; and information about common pasture and meadow, stock, woodland, and waste. They may also seek to analyse the class structure of those engaged in agriculture in the village (especially before the nineteenth century) and its relation to conditions of tenure or occupation. They will need evidence about changes in such structure from time to time–for example, the growth of a landless class of wage-earners, the development of a group of substantial small freeholders, and the break-up or build-up of estates.