214 AVERAGES OF PRICES. 



market. In some instances, the register of prices is almost 

 weekly, and when the entries are numerous, they are also 

 generally continuous. 



II. In the case of stock, a further change is to be noted. 

 In the earlier volumes, prices of lean and fat stock could not 

 be distinguished, except by exaltations of price. In the present 

 volumes,' most of the articles priced, especially after the first 

 fifty years, when farm accounts almost entirely cease, and the 

 record is all but exclusively of consumption, are of fat stock for 

 consumption. The reader will therefore be cautioned not to 

 infer too hastily that the market exaltation of price which he 

 will recognise is the result of any increased dearness. I have 

 thought it best to give in the tables of these prices, the 

 maximum price of the year at which I have found that each 

 description of animal is sold. I am the more easily able to do 

 so, because the record of purchases for consumption is nearly il 

 not quite continuous, and I am in particular possessed of in- 

 formation on some subjects of this kind which was generally 

 wanting in the earlier volumes, such, for instance, as the pri< 

 of boars, fatted for Christmas. Towards the latter end of th< 

 period, definite information is given as to the price of meat 

 the more important as contracts for sheep, &c. are enten 

 into, as in the case of corn, at nominal prices. 



The caution which I found it necessary to give in my earli< 

 volumes, as to the omission of prices allotted to inferior 01 

 scurril grain, * kebb' oxen and sheep, and similarly low- valued 

 articles, is not needed here, at any rate in the same degree. 

 The great corporations purchased only the best, and evei 

 sold the refuse of the meal under the name of cheet am 

 grudgins, and the spare or coarse fat of the kitchen-pot or 

 dripping-pan, under the names of flotas, cepum or cebum, 

 and tallow. Unfortunately the consumer does not keep so 

 accurate a register of minor articles as the producer did, 

 and I cannot supply my readers with such full information 

 as to the price of dairy produce and eggs as I was able to 

 afford in my previous volumes. Enough, however, will be 



