190 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 



synonymous ; our agriculturists will, therefore, be justi' 

 fied by precedent in discarding their razors. Landowners 

 were not without their troubles ; for in the reign of Edward 

 II. (1307), the estate of the elder Spenser, in Suffolk, was 

 ravaged by his enemies, who carried off 28,000 sheep, 1,000 

 oxen and heifers, 1,200 cows with their calves for two 

 years, 600 cart-horses, and 3,000 hogs. In 1317 harvest 

 was aU gathered by the 1st of September, and wheat fell to 

 one-twelfth of the price at which it had been sold a few 

 weeks previously. The fluctuations in the prices of corn 

 Beem to have been much greater formerly than of late 

 years. In 1202 and 1223 it was 12s. per quarter, 1237 3s. 

 4d., 1243 and 1244 2s., 1246 IBs., 1257 24s., 1258 20s. 1270 

 96s. and also M 8s., 1286 2s. 8d. and also 1 63. Considering 

 the high value of money at those periods, it is easy to 

 imagine what suffering, starvation, and disease must have 

 followed the years of scarcity. Such enormous fluctua- 

 tions could only arise from a concurrence of other evils 

 with an unpropitious season, such as invasion, civil war, 

 and rebellion, from which, thank God, we are now exempt 5 

 and we ought highly to prize the blessings of good govern- 

 ment and good laws, well administered, which we now en^ 

 joy. Much of our progress is founded on a conviction that 

 life, and property, and liberty, are secure in this happy 

 country. Farmers are no longer called villains and churls, 

 subject at any moment to do military or other service, at 

 the command of their lords ; nor have they to guard their 

 flocks and property against the thousands of robbers and 

 murderers who formerly infested this country. The pro- 

 portion of pasture land to arable gradually decreased, but 

 was still as twenty to one. The steward of the manor 

 (Hawsted, in Suifolk) kept the manorial and farm stock 

 accounts in Latin. This would now puzzle some of our 

 modern stewards. 



A.D. 1400 to 1480. — During this period our flock-masters 

 must have improved the quality of their wool, " the cheap 

 and principal commodity of the realm," for it was highly 

 esteemed abroad, and the demand exceeded the supply. 

 I presume the mutton was also improved, and that the 

 animals were better fed, for in former times sheep were 

 kept for their wool only. " Villains" were gradually eman- 

 cipated, and became free labourers, and a new class of cul- 

 tivators arose, paying money rents. At the Hawstead 

 Manor Farm, Suffolk (Sir T. Cullum's) the produce of 

 sixty-one acres of wheat for three years was two hundred 

 and ten quarters, about nine bushels per acre, and, as the 

 price was low, this was no doubt a good crop, and cer- 

 tainly the farming would be quite equal to or above the 

 average. The quantity of seed sown was two-and-a-half 

 bushels, so that the return was hardly four to one. The pro- 

 duce of the different grains at that period, on that farm, was 

 — wheat 8 bushels, barley 12, peas 12, and oats C — a very 

 small return for the quantity of seed sown, and sometliing 

 like what is now grown in many foreign countries that 

 supply our market. In the fifteenth century much arable 

 land was laid down to pasture, on account of the high price 

 of wool, and also because of the scarcity of labour. The 

 villains having been made free labourers betook them- 

 selves to handicrafts and manufactures. Land appears to 

 to have been let still at cheap rates, say 4d. to 8d. an acre, 

 and it must have been of a fair average quality, as it was 

 on Sir Thomas Cullum's estate, in Suffolk; in fact, in 

 1490, the khhoi Of Bury, Suffolk, Ut eighteen ftcres of 



pasture, on a lease (rf eighty years, for 4Jd. per acre. 

 Landlords reserved to themselves the right of immediate 

 re-entry if the rents were not punctually paid. As to wages 

 at that time, a bailifl" received 25s. a year, besides meat 

 and drink, and 5s. a year for clothing. A chief hind, carter, 

 or shepherd, 20s., and for clothing, 4s. ; a woman-servant, 

 lOs., with 43. for clothing; a common labourer, 15s., and 

 3s. 4d. for clothing; and he seems to have been left to pro- 

 vide his own diet. In harvest, wages were higher, say 4d. 

 with meat and drink, or 6d. if he provided for himself; 

 a reaper or carter, 3d. with, and 5d. without, provisions ; a 

 woman, 2id. with, or 4id. without. These wages were 

 fixed by statute, but still labourers became scarce. Cottes- 

 wold wool was in great demand by the Flemings, Vene- 

 tians, and others, for the manufacture of fine cloths ; and 

 it is said that Cotteswold sheep, being sent to Spain, pro- 

 duced — as a result, I presume, by a cross — the celebrated 

 Merino. We had not at that time learned the art of work- 

 ing up our fine wool at home ; we were at this period ex- 

 porters of grain to foreign parts, and a law was passed to 

 compel boroughs, towns, ifec, to provide a standard bushel 

 measure. The use of coal became now more general. How 

 oddly this sounds to us, who know that last year the con- 

 sumption of the twenty-one mile circle around London was 

 6,000,000 tons, of which 1,500,000 tons came by rail. 



1408 TO 1608. — During this period a large advance was 

 made on our agricultural condition. Farmers passed 

 from wooden trenchers and wooden spoons to pewter, and 

 even in some cases to silver. Their straw pallet was ex- 

 changed for a feather-bed ; and their rents were doubled. 

 The softer sex also found their condition ameliorated. All 

 this took place concurrently with, and as a corollary to, 

 our progress in manufactures and commerce. 



Comfort for the British Landowner. — Adam Smith says, in 

 his " Wealth of Nations :" " Every improvement in the 

 circumstances of society tends, either directly or indirectly, 

 to raise the real rent of land ; to increase the real wealth 

 of the landlord — his power of purchasing the labour, or 

 the produce of the labour, of other people. The extension 

 of improvement and cultivation tends to raise it directly. 

 The landlord's share of the produce necessarily increases 

 with the increase of the produce, That rise in the real 

 price of those parts of the rude produce of land which 

 is first the effect of the extended improvement and culti- 

 vation, and afterwards the cause of their being still further 

 extended (the rise in the price of cattle, for example), 

 tends, too, to raise the rent of land directly, and in a still 

 greater proportion. The real value of the landlord's 

 share — his real command of the labour of other people — 

 not only rises with the real value of the produce, but the 

 proportion of his share to the whole produce rises with it. 

 All those improvements in the productive powers of la- 

 bour which tend directly to reduce the rent-price of ma- 

 nufacturers, tend indirectly to raise the real rent of land. 

 Every increase in the real wealth of society, every in- 

 crease in the quantity of useful labour employed with- 

 in it, tends indirectly to raise the real rent of laud. 

 The contrei-y circumstances — the neglect of cultivation 

 and improvement, the fall in the real price of any part of 

 the rude produce of land, the rise in the real price of ma- 

 nufactures, from the decay of manufacturing art and in- 

 dustry, the declension of the real wealth of society- 

 All tend, on the other hand, to lower the real rent of land, 



