64 AGRICULTURE IN THE 



in the vast majority of cases, we shall find to follow on the de- 

 basement of the currency by Henry and Edward, and its per- 

 manent depreciation by Elizabeth. But it will be obvious, 

 that with the temptation of such a great exaltation of prices 

 and with such manifest evidence of demand, sheep-farming 

 must have become and remained the most lucrative branch 

 of agriculture 1 . Similarly, though there is great paucity of 

 information, the value of hides will be seen to have risen 

 proportionately, and to imply a very urgent demand. 



But although I have so little evidence of the value of the 

 raw material, my reader will find copious and fairly continuous 

 information about the value of the manufactured article in the 

 price of woollen stuffs. On the whole then, while the average 

 price of the tod of wool in the 140 years of the first two 

 volumes was 4^. ^\d.^ it was enhanced to more than double the 

 price in 1547, and to nearly five times the price in 1575. We 

 need not therefore be surprised at finding that the temptation 

 to sheep-farming was almost irresistible, and that statute after 

 statute failed to arrest the tendency. 



The improvement of land, and the restoration of exhausted 

 land, were by draining, the process of which was rude ; consist- 

 ing chiefly in drawing a deep furrow and carrying away the 

 earth from the furrow, ditching round damp meadows, marling 

 and limeing arable, spreading stable dung over it, and setting 

 sheep on it. The agriculturist too had begun to see the ad- 

 vantage of deep ploughing, by which, says Fitzherbert, ' he will 

 find new mould that was not seen in a hundred years before, 

 which must needs give more corn than the other did before/ 

 Molehills should be scattered when they are freshly thrown up, 

 and then they do no harm. 



Water-meadows, i. e. fields over which running water can be 

 diverted, were very valuable. The practice was to lay them 

 under flood after the grass was mown till the beginning of 

 May, care being taken that the waters did not become stagnant 



1 Complaints of the extension of pastures and decay of husbandry are made as early as 

 6 Hen. VIII. cap. 5 ; repeated verbatim 8 Hen. VIII. cap. I. 



