MEDIEVAL AGRICULTURE. 37 



as I have stated elsewhere, was small. The largest amount, 

 after Maldon, is found at Cuxham ; and the arable on this 

 estate was about one hundred and eighty acres annually. 



On three of the estates no sheep are kept. Elham, indeed, 

 was chiefly valuable for its tithe. Cambridge and Holy- 

 well (Oxford) were chiefly cheese and butter farms, near 

 towns, and therefore employed more profitably even than in 

 growing wool. 



On other estates the sheep are distinguished as ewes, 

 muttons, i. e. wethers, hoggasters, or two-year olds (the two- 

 year old ewe is called jercion), and lambs. It seems that 

 some of the farms bred, others fatted, sheep. Thus, at Gam- 

 lingay in 1335, the whole stock is wethers. It may be ob- 

 served, that in these times the fleece was worth nearly as 

 much as the sheep. As a rule, one ram is kept for thirty 

 ewes. 



Fowls are kept on all estates: capons on most. 



I shall advert below, in treating on the price of wool, to 

 the fact that wool entries are scanty. But the evidence 

 supplied here will indicate how light the fleece was. The 

 wool is given in cloves of 7 Ib. and fractional pounds. 



Lastly. I have stated the annual losses for which the 

 bailiffs take credit. They are occasionally enormous, and, 

 happily, far removed from ordinary experience in our own 

 time. 



Such accounts are, it is hoped, sufficient specimens of the 

 method in which estates were generally cultivated before 

 those changes in the bailiff system which were induced by 

 the great plague of 1348. 



