ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Open field system

The open field system is like a big garden that is owned by lots of farmers. They all use the same land to grow their crops and raise their animals, but they each have their own little plot of land. They all work together to take care of the land and make sure everything grows well, but they are responsible for their own part of the garden.

Instead of having fences around each person's plot of land, the open field system uses a system of strips. Each farmer has a long, thin strip of land that they work on, and there's no fence between their strip and their neighbor's strip. This means that everyone can share tools and help each other out whenever they need it.

But because there are no fences, it's hard to keep animals from wandering into someone else's strip. That's why each farmer has a specific area where they keep their animals, like a pen or a pasture. They have to make sure their animals stay in their own area so they don't eat their neighbor's crops or trample on their land.

The open field system was used a long time ago, before people started using fences and individual plots of land. It was a good way for people to work together and share resources, but it could also be hard to manage and keep everyone happy. Nowadays, we have different ways of dividing up land and managing farms, but the open field system was an important part of history.