BAD TIMES 



179 



sell them to the soap-boilers, who came round to every farm 

 collecting them. This is the earliest mention in a Hawsted lease 

 of rye-grass, clover, and turnips, though clover and turnips 

 had been first cultivated there about 1700, and soon spread. 



The winter of 1708-9 was very severe, a great frost lasting 

 from October until the spring ; wheat was 8u. yd. a quarter, 

 and high prices lasted until I7J5- 1 



From 1715 to 1765 was an era of good seasons and low 

 prices generally ; in that half-century Tooke says there were 

 only five bad seasons. In 1732 prices of corn were very low, 

 wheat being about 34.?. a quarter, so that we are not surprised 

 to find that its cultivation often did not pay at all.- At Little 

 Gadsden in Hertfordshire, in that year a fair season, and on 

 enclosed land, the following is the balance sheet for an acre : 



343 



CR. 



15 bushels of wheat (a poor crop, as 20 s. d. 



bushels was now about the average) .220 



Straw . . . . . . II 6 



2 13 6 



Loss 10 o 



On barley, worth about 1 a quarter, the loss was 3^. 6d. an 



1 Tooke, History of Prices, {.35. 



2 Wheat averaged : 



1718-22 about 275. 1730 about 30J. 1750 about 30*. 



1724 36*. 1732 24J. 1755 35 s - 



1725 46*. 1736 3os. 1760 38 s. 



1726 35*. 1740 42-r. 1765 42*. 

 1728 525. 1744 23*. 



N 2 



