28 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



1400 at 3^., but few were paid in this way. Many were paid 

 by the year, with allowances of food besides and sometimes 

 clothes, and many were in harvest at all events paid by the 

 piece. At Crondal in Hampshire in 1348 a carter by the year 

 received 4^., a herdsman 2s. 3^., a daya or dairymaid, 2s} 

 The change to monej'' payments was beneficial to both 

 parties ; it stopped many of the dishonest practices of the 

 lord's bailiff, apart from the fact that farming by officials 

 was an expensive method. It meant, too, that religious 

 festivals and bad weather would no longer diminish the lord's 

 profits ; on the other hand, the tenant could devote himself 

 entirely to his holding free from annoying labour services.^ 



The state of agriculture at the time of Domesday was 

 apparently very low, judging by the small returns of manors,^ 

 but by the time of Edward I it had made considerable progress. 

 During the reign of Henry HI England had grown in opulence, 

 and continued to do so under his great son, who found time 

 from his manifold tasks to encourage agriculture and horti- 

 culture. Fruit and forest trees, shrubs and flowers, were 

 introduced from the continent, and we are told that the hop 

 flourished in the royal gardens.* At his death England was 

 prosperous, the people progressing in comfort, the population 

 advancing, the agricultural labourers were increasing in num- 

 bers, the value of the land had risen and was rising. Then 

 came a reaction from which England did not recover for two 

 centuries, and Harrison, who wrote his description of England 

 at the end of the sixteenth century, says that many of the 

 improvements began to be neglected in process of time, so that 

 from Henry IV till the latter end of Henry VII there was 

 little or no use for them in England, ' but they remained un- 

 known.' 



The Hundred Rolls of Edward I, which embody the results 



^ Hampshire Record Society, i. 64. See Appendix, i. 

 ^ Hasbach, English Agrimltural Labourer, p. 14. 

 ^ Hallam, Middle Ages, iii. 361. 

 * Denton, England in the Fifteenth Century, p. 56. 



