58 AGRICULTURE IN THE 



for landowners. These were beyond doubt a very numerous 

 class. The civil war had scattered many of the great estates, 

 and the thrifty and industrious yeomen of the fifteenth century 

 had become the proprietors of considerable estates, though, as 

 I conclude, generally liable to such dues as the lords of manors 

 exacted; for though the statute Quia Emptores prohibited 

 subinfeudation de novo^ the lord was still able to grant tenures 

 on the old terms under which grants were made before the 

 statute passed. I shall be able to shew from another work of 

 Fitzherbert, the treatise on Surveying, that such tenancies 

 were common. They are alluded to in the Book of Husbandry, 

 where the author speaks of the assent of the lord, and the 

 homage to an exchange between the freeholders. 



But Fitzherbert says nothing about the rearing of poultry. 

 The fact is, poultry farming was universal. Fowls and geese 

 were plentiful and cheap, as I shall have occasion to shew 

 when I comment on the price of stock. Nor do we read in 

 the book from which I have quoted so largely, anything about 

 the economy of the dairy. There was no need ; for I believe, 

 and with reason, from the low price of the articles, that most 

 well-to-do farm hands possessed cow and pig as well as poultry. 

 The distribution of land and the numerous common pas- 

 tures led to this result. Tusser's husbandman, who probably 

 belonged to nearly the same rank in life as Fitzherbert's 

 pupils, is always plentifully provided with fowl and pork. 

 Poultry rents, too, are common in the case of cottagers, though 

 in many cases these dues, once almost universal, had been 

 commuted for small money payments. 



Quite apart from the great rise in prices which occurred 

 during the last forty years of the present epoch, it might be 

 expected that the prices of certain articles would be higher, 

 considering the different nature of the accounts which have 

 supplied most of the evidence in the earlier as compared with 

 that in the later volumes. Many of the farm sales were of 

 lean stock, and it is to be expected that customary payments 

 in kind would not contain produce of the best quality. But 



