FODDER AND HAY. 1$\ 



that the hay was generally carted at the expense of the pur- 

 chaser, the lower price will be accounted for, and will enhance 

 the probability of the hypothesis which I have ventured to 

 propose. 



Unfortunately while the entries of the price of hay are so 

 scanty they do not occur on the same years as those in which 

 the price of grass by the acre is quoted. Hence there is no 

 opportunity for comparison. Only three sales of hay by the 

 load are given from Oxford, and in all three cases the price is 

 below the average given above. 



In Walter of Henley's " Le dite de Hosbanderye a " a dis- 

 tinction is made between coarse and fine grass, and direction 

 is given that sheep kept under cover should be fed on the 

 former in preference to the latter, for the reason that they are 

 apt to feed too greedily, and suffer in consequence. In the 

 absence of hay, wheat and oat straw, pea and vetch haulm, 

 are recommended as food. These recommendations afford a 

 negative proof of the total absence not only of the various 

 kinds of brassicae employed in modern agriculture, but even of 

 carrots and parsnips. 



The estimate given by the same author of the comparative 

 productiveness of marsh, or salt, and ordinary meadows is, that 

 on the former two cows will produce a wey of cheese (about 

 2 cwt.) between Easter and Michaelmas, and half a gallon of 

 butter the week, that is, about twelve or thirteen gallons ; on 

 the latter, three cows ought to give the same amount of cheese 

 and butter. 



a Douce MSS., Bodley 98. p. 188 sqq. There is a Latin version of this work, also in 

 manuscript, in the same library, Digby 147. It is suggested by Douce that the translation 

 was made by Grostete, Bp. of Lincoln, but I should think that the original was hardly of 

 sufficient antiquity. The author of the treatise must either have read Fleta or have 

 been consulted by him. The manuscript of Digby's copy is not older than the beginning 

 of the fifteenth century, and is rather carelessly written. 



