358 DAIRY PRODUCE, EGGS AND POULTRY. 



dearer during the first thirty years, it is very dear as com- 

 pared with previous experience in the decade 1643-52, is 

 cheaper again during the next thirty years, and is dearer than 

 ever in the last decade. As is usually the case too, the price 

 is greatly exalted during the two years 1648 and 1649. Prices 

 however in the five years 1697-1701 are all taken from Lon- 

 don purchases, where we may expect that the rate will be 

 higher than it is in the country, especially in places like 

 Cambridge and Winchester, where natural pasture is abun- 

 dant. 



We may reasonably conclude that dear years for butter 

 were characterised by drought, especially when the record 

 comes from localities where the produce would generally be 

 cheap. Thus in 1629 the average price is 6s. $\d., all the 

 information coming from Cambridge, and the price being 

 u. ^d. above the average of the decade in which it occurs. 

 Again, in the decade 1643-52 there are five continuous dear 

 years, the prices being 6s. $\d., 6s. io|^., 'js. $\d., >js. i\d., 

 and 6s. $d. the dozen pounds. There however are the five 

 dear years, 1646-50, the scarcity of which has been so often 

 recognised. In these years the evidence also comes exclusively 

 from Cambridge. The year 1675 is the dearest in the whole 

 series, the price, 8s. ^d. the dozen, being derived from Win- 

 chester. Here the College buys cheese at 28^. the cwt. 

 regularly, and gives the weight, the residual cost of the item 

 indicating, as the weight is given, what the cost of butter is. 

 In this year the price of corn is rather low, and the exalted 

 price must be due to drought. The only other abnormally 

 high-priced years are 1684 and 1685, when the rates, in both 

 cases derived from Winchester, are 6s. l\d. and 6s. io%d. 

 Between 1691-1696, inclusive, Houghton's prices have been 

 reckoned in the averages. 



Where the year is divided into quarters in the original 

 account, or dates of purchases are given, butter is much 

 dearer, sometimes as much as fifty per cent., in winter and 

 early spring than it is in the summer. Thus, for example, 



