basis of agricultural organization in Europe and the Middle East in early times. Arable land was divided into two fields or groups of fields; one group was planted to wheat, barley, or rye, while the other was allowed to lie fallow until the next planting season to recover its fertility. After cropping the first group of fields was turned to fallow, with the livestock permitted to graze on the stubble and enrich the soil with their droppings. Beginning about the 8th century, between the Loire and the Rhine rivers, the two-field system gave way to the more sophisticated three-field system (q.v.).