426 ON THE PRICES OF FARM PRODUCE. 



fagots, which is the ordinary rate at which this service is paid 

 before the Plague, and reckon fagots at zs. the hundred e, the 

 produce of an acre of average underwood would be about 360 

 fagots, for,as usual, the hundred in these cases was the great 

 hundred of 120. At present it appears that underwood pro- 

 duces from 300 to 600 fagots the acre, according to its 

 goodness, and that such fagots sell at about 20 j. the hundred. 

 The lop and top of timber is called great wood, and bears a 

 similar price to fagots. Bavins are chiefly made of blackthorn, 

 and bear a lower price. Underwood, however, capable of 

 producing 400 fagots, is sold at about j?5 5*. the acre. This 

 seems to be a rate considerably in excess of that which pre- 

 vailed in medieval times, proportionately, that is to say, to 

 the price of the product. It would appear, in short, that while 

 the present rise in the price of fagots, by taking the average at 

 is. 6d., is about eight times, the rise in the raw material is 

 not much less than twenty times. The benefit implied in this 

 difference was secured by the labourer, and of course this 

 benefit was larger to the survivors of the Plague f . 



HEMP. It is probable that small quantities of hemp were 

 grown on most farms the soil of which was strong enough for 

 the purpose, and that the produce was hackled and spun by the 

 servants of the house, no entry being made on the bailifFs roll 

 of the quantity grown and consumed. But some few entries of 

 the price of hemp, as well as of rope, have been found, though 

 described by very different weights. Most of these are sales, 

 and the largest amount of information derived from any one 

 locality is that supplied from Boxley in Kent. 



We learn from this place that c large ' hemp was considerably 

 cheaper than small, by which I conclude that the tow was 



e The general average price of fagots, as deduced from all the entries, except one or 

 two in which the rate is excessively low, is as. 8rf. But this price is exalted by at least 

 2d. a hundred, in consequence of the high rates of 1321-1330. That of 1351-1360 arises, 

 not from any abnormal cause, such as affects the price of 1 309, but from the fact that the 

 entries are very few, and from dear localities, such as Kent, only. 



f The whin sold at 45. an acre (vol. ii. p. 575. iv.) must have been used for 

 fagots. 



