"Goodman's Croft ~

A strip of ground
Or corner of a field formerly left untilled,
In Scotland, in the belief that unless some such place
Were left,
The spirit of evil would damage the crop.

'Scotchmen still living remember
The corner of a field being left for the goodman's croft.'

Tylor,
From 'Primitive Culture'
[ii. 370]"

~ E. Cobham Brewer,
From "Dictionary of Phrase and Fable"
[1898]