Agricultural Labourers
A large proportion of the population of earlier times were agricultural labourers, but these were not the dull clodhoppers lacking intelligence or aspiration of popular myth. Even the very small tenant farmers of under 10 acres might call themselves thus. Countrymen had to be extremely knowledgeable about many aspects of agricultural practice in the area in which they lived. Not necessarily masters of every trade but certainly capable of tackling a wide variety of tasks as well as reading the weather, improvising solutions to problems, and using natural resources to feed their families.