306 O.V THE PRICE OF HAY AND STRAW. 



quantity depended the winter condition of cattle. Hence the 

 demand for hay was intensified when the summer had been 

 excessively dry, or the spring was backward, or when the hay- 

 making time had been wet, or when the prolongation of winter 

 frosts made the farmer unusually anxious about his cattle and 

 sheep. And by implication, information on the price of 

 hay at this time is instructive from its bearing on agriculture 

 and cattle-feeding. 



The years of dear wheat do not correspond except in a 

 particular period to years of dear hay. In 1607, hay was 

 39 s. \\d., but wheat was 37.$-. 6 \d. In 1611, hay is 32^. 

 wheat 37-r. n\d. In 1615, hay is 39^. 3</., wheat 345. 

 In 1634, hay is 45^. $d., wheat 41 s. >]\d. In 1637, hay is 

 45 s. i \d^ wheat 47 s. <)\d. The correspondence however is closer 

 in the dearths of the Civil War. In 1648, hay is 45^. id. y wheat 

 6js. loj^. In 1649, 54^. $d. and 65^. 6d. But in 1652, when 

 hay is 50^. Sd., wheat is 33 s. lofdf. Nor do we find an extra- 

 ordinary price of hay during the seven bad seasons at the 

 end of the seventeenth century. I conclude therefore that 

 in the two years 1648 and 1649 there were very backward 

 and cold springs and a bad hay-making season ; in brief, 

 a scanty and ill-made crop. 



In vol. iv. p. 297, I noted that during the fifteenth and six- 

 teenth centuries the price of a load of hay was generally close to 

 the price of a quarter of barley. But during the period before 

 me, it has considerably advanced on this relation. Now this 

 is not to be explained by the fact that a different class of 

 persons used it, for my notes on the seventeenth century are 

 extracted from the same or similar records with those of the 

 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. But I conclude that as 

 agriculture improved, and the quality of stock with it, there 

 was an effectual and increasing demand for this produce, and 

 a consequent tendency upwards. Roughly speaking, the 

 relative price of hay increases twenty per cent, above that 

 at which it stood in the earlier period. 



I now proceed to discuss Houghton's entries and averages. 



