AGRICULTURE IN BRITAIN. 429 



notwithstanding various laws for its limitation, and this at last 

 produced a memorable revolution in the state of agriculture, 

 which made a mighty noise for many years. The prelates, 

 barons, and other great proprietors of lands, kept extensive 

 tracts round their castles, which were called their demesne 

 lands, in their own immediate possession, and cultivated them 

 by their villains, and hired servants, under the directions of 

 their bailiffs. But these great landholders having often led 

 their followers into the fields of war, their numbers were grad- 

 ually diminished, and hired servants could not be procured on 

 reasonable terms. This obliged the prelates, lords, and gentle- 

 men to enclose the lands around their castle, and to convert 

 them into pasturage grounds. This practice of enclosing be- 

 came very general in England, about the middle of this period, 

 and occasioned prodigious clamors from those who mistook the 

 effects of depopulation for its cause. The habit of enclosing 

 lands and converting them into pasture continued after the 

 cause had ceased, and an act was passed to stop its progress, in 

 the beginning of the reign of Henry VII. 



The dearths of this period furnish another proof of the low 

 state of agriculture. Wheat, in 1437 and 1438, rose from 

 12^ to 1 6 cents, the ordinary price per bushel, to 81 cents. 

 Stow observes that, in these extremities, the common people 

 endeavored to preserve their wretched lives by drying the roots 

 of herbs, and converting .them into a kind of bread. Land in 

 those days was sold for ten years' purchase, so great was the 

 insecurity of possession. Agriculture in Scotland was at a low 

 ebb during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, on 

 account of the long and ruinous wars in which the country was 

 engaged. A law, passed in 1424, enacts that every laborer of 

 " simple estate " dig a piece of ground daily, seven feet square ; 

 another in 1457, that farmers who had eight oxen should sow 

 every year one bushel of wheat, half a bushel of peas, and 

 40 beans, under the pain of 10 shillings, to be paid to the baron ; 

 and if the baron did not do the same thing to the lands in his 

 possession, he should pay the same penalty to the king. 



From the accession of Henry VII., in 1485, to nearly the 

 middle of the seventeenth century, England enjoyed peace. To 

 remove the effects of former wars, however, required consider- 



