CHAPTER XIII. 



ARTICLES EMPLOYED IN AGRICULTURE. 



I PURPOSE in the present chapter to deal with the same 

 articles as were treated under a similar head in my first 

 volumes, viz. salt, tar, lime, and iron or steel, together with 

 such other materials as are occasionally employed, but, being 

 too few for separate tables, are comprised under the very 

 general head of sundry articles. Next I purpose to deal with 

 agricultural implements, and in the third place with build- 

 ing materials, concerning which very copious information is 

 supplied. 



I had to make some excuse for grouping these subjects under 

 a common title in my first volumes, and the excuse is more 

 necessary now. But it was expedient to make the inference 

 continuous. It is still the case that the principal use of salt 

 was for the preservation of provisions, though it is undoubtedly 

 used as a condiment ; that tar was mainly purchased for dress- 

 ing sheep, though it is employed in the later part of the period 

 in dockyards; that lime is much more frequently registered in 

 the accounts for building purposes than for dressing land ; and 

 that many more uses are recorded for iron and steel than the 

 manufacture of agricultural implements. As, moreover, the 

 record of agriculture is derived from prices of produce, from 

 indirect evidence, and from comments on its progress, instead 

 of being taken from the actual register of farming operations, 

 the relation of these materials to agriculture becomes less 

 distinct as time goes on. 



SALT. The information which I have gathered as to the, 

 price of this article is far less copious than that which formed 



