MEDIEVAL AGRICULTURE. 2J 



was in the manufacture of beer, which seems to have been 

 continually brewed in small quantities, and for immediate 

 consumption. Wheat is sometimes, but rarely, malted. Oat ' 

 malt is much more common. The chief use of oats was for 

 horse food, but oatmeal was made for the broth or porridge 

 of the house. 



Rye was very scantily cultivated. An occasional crop on 

 many estates, it is habitually sown on few. It is regularly 

 sown in Cambridgeshire, and some other of the eastern coun- 

 ties. As the period before us passes on, it becomes still 

 more rare, and, as v/ill be seen below, some of the later 

 years of this enquiry contain no entries of its purchase and 

 sale. 



A peculiar kind of barley, called drageum, is very generally 

 cultivated, especially in the eastern counties. This is pro- 

 bably bere. Sprig appears to be another name for this kind 

 of grain; and it is likely that bericorn, berimancorn, and 

 some other forms of the name represent a grain identical 

 with drageum, or closely related to it. At least the rate of 

 seed to the acre favours such a view. Drage, like barley, 

 was made into malt, and is often thus specified in the ac- 

 counts. 



The three leguminous plants, beans, peas, and vetches, were 

 generally, but not extensively, cultivated ; the average being 

 small in every case. Peas, however, are more frequent than 

 the other kinds, as will be seen from the second volume, and 

 from the table of average prices. They are grey, black, and 

 white, the last being, of course, the most valuable. Some- 

 times they are specially designated as pig-peas. They were, 

 I think, generally used for fattening hogs. It seems that 

 peas and beans are occasionally sown together, perhaps other 

 kinds of grain also. 



Wheat and vetches appear to have been sown together, 

 especially at Farley, if, indeed, this be the interpretation of 

 what the Records call frumentum vescosum or vessetum. 

 Bullimung, which occurs early, is said to be a mixture of 



