404 ON THE PRICES OF FARM PRODUCE. 



seems to have commenced at once, and to have been continued 

 through the whole season in which it could be produced. 

 Occasionally it appears that stamps were used to mark the pro- 

 duce of the particular dairy ; and if, as seems probable, this is 

 the meaning of the term " a formula for cheese/' quoted from 

 Basingstoke in the year 1331 (vol. ii. p. 571. i.)> suc ^ a stamp 

 would be obvious, and considering the universal employment 

 of seals, natural and familiar. 



The common practice was to make up the curd into small 

 cheeses, described as largest, middle, and least shape, and sold 

 generally at 3^., 2^., and id. If the average price of cheese be 

 taken at \d. the pound, (it is really a little dearer,) these 

 cheeses must have weighed six, four, and two pounds respec- 

 tively. It would seem, therefore, that the cheese was generally 

 small. An accurate register was kept of the sales effected, as 

 well as of the amount produced j and generally, the period 

 during which this branch of dairy farming was in full vigour 

 is carefully denned. Milk, it may be observed, is almost 

 invariably sold at the rate of \d. the gallon. Cream, which I 

 have never seen quoted but once,, at Cuxham in 1332, (it is 

 then spelt c creyme,') is sold on this occasion for d. the gallon 

 (vol. ii. p. 571. ii.), that is, as we shall see further on, at rather 

 less than half the price of butter. 



Four weights are given for cheese. Of these, the wey or 

 pisa of 2 cwt. is the commonest. Occasionally the word 

 pondus is used as a synonyme for pisa. The pund, which 

 appears in Sussex only, contained, it appears, about 18 Ibs. 

 The petra, or stone, occurs in the early period, but is abandoned 

 in the time which followed on the Plague, if indeed its absence 

 is not due to the fact that those estates on which the petra 

 was customary cease to supply information. On the other 

 hand, the clove is found in the later period, but is not used 

 in the earlier. The clove is half the petra of 14 pounds. It 

 seems that 28 clove, or 14 petrae, went to the wey. The pound 

 is used in the first and last decade only. 



The price of cheese is occasionally enhanced to a considerable 



