Agricultural Statistics 1 1 6 



Mertun College (over i,oco acres for 3 years 

 in different parts of England) Wheat yielded 10, 

 Barley 16, Dredge 14, Rye n, Oats 10, Peas n, 

 and Beans 10 bush., or an average of 10-12 bush.; 

 these results have been wrought out from Prof. 

 Rogers' Tables (Hist. Agr^] presumably derived 

 from the actual Bailiffs' A/ cs . At this period 

 (1333-5) varying amounts were sown, but from 

 the figures it would appear that about i quarter 

 (8 bush.) might be stated as the all round yield 

 (after deduction for seed); against about 10 bush, 

 in 1696. There seems to be no evidence of yield 

 per acre T. R. W. ; and no reason to suppose the 

 agriculture of the nth century (1086) much more 

 futile than that of 1333-5 hence the statement of 

 a supposed yield of 6 bush.* p. ac. (of which 2 b. 

 for seed) can be supported by nothing unless its 

 author's wish to prove the existence of a fanciful 

 ploughland at any cost (p. 438 D. B. and Beyond}. 



Now no assertion is made as to the correctness 

 of King's figures, but let it be remembered he was 

 a notable statistician living at the period of the 

 Revolution ; that an estimate of 4^- people per 

 house is Jess than medium, and that his method or 

 calculating the fallow of the barley area, would 

 suggest that rather more than | of the land in tillage 

 was sown. 



In 1086, in 30 counties of England there were 



* D. B. and Beyond, p. 438, says this hypothesis is taken Average 

 from Walt, dc Henley : what that writer actually says is that ^ d f 

 a yield of 6 bush. p. ac. means a loss of id. p. ac., in addi- acre: 

 tion to the land being rent free (suppose 4d. to 6d. p. ac.) : in neither 

 the same vol. cited by Prof. Maitland, the anonymous and ^proba- 

 coeval writer on Husbandry gives the returns from wheat as bility in 

 5 times the seed sown, i.e., 10-12 bush. p. ac., from 2 or ^\ placing it 

 bush, seed, which yield is similar to the actual figures of the bushels 

 Bailiffs' a/ cs , ut sup. 



