172 A FARMER'S YEAR 



PRICES OF GRAIN PER COOMB, APRIL 3, 1800 



s. d. 

 Wheat 320 



Barley 1150 



Malt . . . I 18 o 



Pease. . . . . . . . . 2 10 o 



Beans I 10 o 



Oats . . . 140 



Hay, per cwt . .076 



Straw . . . . . . . .036 



From this table it appears that at Bungay market in 1800 

 wheat was 6/. 45. the quarter, barley was 3/. los, the quarter, and 

 oats were zl. Ss. To go to the other extreme of the scale, I find 

 that, according to the average 'Gazette' prices in the year 1895, 

 wheat was i/. 3^. \d. a quarter, barley was i/. is. \\d. a quarter, 

 and oats were 14*. 6d. a quarter. But these figures do not show 

 all the difference, since it is to be presumed that in the year 1800 

 gold was scarcer and the purchasing power of money greater than 

 is the case to-day. 



In walking along one of the roads this afternoon I noticed 

 that the boys, or more probably the hobbledehoys, have again been 

 breaking down the little hawthorns left to grow in the hedgerows. 

 Ever since I began to farm I have been endeavouring to rear up 

 shoots at regular intervals in the hedges, so that in time they might 

 make fine may-trees. Fifty or sixty years ago an old man in this 

 parish known as Rough Jimmy, a very curious character, in 

 trimming a fence belonging to the Hall estate which borders the 

 Church lane, left certain shoots in this fashion, with the result that 

 in June the entire roadway is splendid in trees white with haw- 

 thorn bloom, although unfortunately the strangling ivy has choked 

 one or two of them. 



A generation hence I hope that owing to my efforts such a 

 spectacle will be more common in this village, though chiefly, I 

 fear, in the field hedges and by the side of private paths. Along 

 the main road many of the young trees do not survive, since when 

 they get to a noticeable size the gilded youth of Ditchingham 

 and Bungay batter them down with sticks, or slash them through 



