EMPLOYED IN AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY. 463 



All these methods, however, of dressing sheep for the scab 

 were abandoned when the value of tar as a specific was 

 discovered, called sometimes by this name, but more frequently 

 tarpisch and bitumen. 



No species of pine, it seems, is indigenous to England. Tar 

 was therefore a foreign product, and was most likely imported 

 from Norway, Bergen at this time being a member of the 

 Hanseatic League, and a most important city. A rude method 

 of distillation, the original probably of those complex processes 

 which modern science has elaborated, has been carried on in 

 the Scandinavian peninsula time out of mind, by which tar is 

 extracted from the bark and roots of the various kinds of 

 indigenous pine. Before tar was used in agricultural economy, 

 two of the products of this distillation, or of others analogous 

 to it, pitch namely or resin, were introduced into this country, 

 the former being generally used to caulk boats, and once at 

 least to supply artificial light, the latter being employed as the 

 common incense of churches. The source from which these 

 articles was derived was supplied with abundance of tar. 



Tar was, it seems, imported in barrels, containing from 

 fourteen to sixteen gallons, and it was plainly much cheaper 

 when taken in quantities of this kind than when purchased in 

 small lots. It is only, however, in the later years of this 

 enquiry that it is bought by the barrel, in early times it is 

 uniformly bought by the gallon. The earliest instance of a 

 purchase by the barrel is in 1325, at Caynham, or Kaynham, in 

 Yorkshire, at which place sheep-farming on a very large scale 

 was carried on, to judge from a sale of wool in 1323. 



The first place which adopts the use of tar as dressing is 

 Southampton, the provost and brethren of GOD'S House having 

 used it on their manor at Gussage as early as 1295. Up to 

 1307 the use is very interrupted, but it is found before this 

 date in Berkshire, Bucks, Sussex, and Norfolk. At and after 

 1307 evidence of the price of tar is abundant till the con- 

 clusion of the period contained in these volumes. 



At first it seems that the price of this article fluctuated very 



