172 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



eighteenth century l ; and large-boned sheep with coarser wool 

 were to be found in the counties of Warwick, Leicester, 

 Buckingham, Northampton, and Nottingham ; in the north 

 of England too were big-boned sheep with inferior wool, 

 the largest with coarse wool being found in the marshes of 

 Lincolnshire. 



About this time wool had fallen much in price : ' Has 

 nobody told you,' writes a west country farmer to his 

 absentee landlord in 1737, 'that wool has fallen to near 

 half its price, and that we cannot find purchasers for a great 

 part of it at any price whatsoever. When most of our estates 

 (farms) were taken wool was generally yd., ftd., or more by 

 the pound ; the same is now 4^. and still falling.' -' 



But the latter price was exceptionally low ; Smith 3 gives 

 the following average prices per tod of 28 Ib. : 



1706 . . \-js.6d. 



1717-8 . . 23.?. to 275. 



1737-42 . . iu. to 14.?. 



1743 ~ os - 



1743-53 24J. 



After 1753 it fell again, largely owing to the great plague 

 among cattle, which brought about a ' prodigious increase 4 of 

 sheep'; and about 1770 Young 5 favoured corn rather than 

 wool, for there was always a market for the former, but the 

 foreign demand for cloth was diminishing, especially in the 

 case of France, besides prohibition of export kept down the 

 price. 6 Yet although wool was being deserted for corn it had 

 in Young's time 'been so long supposed the staple and 



1 Bradley, General Treatise, i. 160 ; see also Smith, Memoirs of Wool, 

 ii. 169, where the sheep of Leominster, of Cotteswold, and of the Isle of 

 Wight are said to be the best in 1719. The great market for sheep was 

 Weyhill Fair, and Stourbridge Fair was a great wool market. 



2 The West Country Farmer , a Representation of the Decay of Trade, 



1737- 



3 Memoirs of Wool, ii. 243. 4 Ibid. ii. 399. 

 6 Farmer's Letters (3rd ed.), p. 27. 



6 Cunningham, Industry and Commerce, ii. 384. 



