E 



ELEVENTH-CENTURY FARMING .209 



that if there is an error in these calculations, they are too 

 favourable. 



We have now to ask ourselves how many acres yielding 

 4 bushels to the acre will be required to furnish food to the 

 households, recorded in Domesday Book ? And, to answer 

 this question, we must first ascertain what amount of corn 

 would be required to feed one family during the year. 



Archdeacon Hale gives figures relating to the diet of the 

 Canons of St. Paul's during the first half of the thirteenth 

 century. Each canon was allowed, weekly, twenty-one loaves, 

 representing half a bushel of wheat, and 30 gallons of beer, 

 representing 3 J bushels of mixed grain ; in other words, each 

 canon received yearly in bread the equivalent of 26 bushels 

 of wheat, and in beer the equivalent of 195 bushels of mixed 

 grain. But their beer must have been very strong, as they 

 brewed only 8 gallons from a bushel of grain, whereas the 

 usual product of a bushel of barley to-day is about 20 gallons. 

 Both the quantity and quality of their beer shows that this 

 scale was that of the wealthy : it must not, therefore, be 

 adopted as a standard. 



The bailiffs' accounts of the thirteenth and fourteenth 

 centuries show the dietary of the labouring classes. At 

 Cuxham, in 1316, the carter and four ploughmen received 



1 quarter of mixed grain every ten weeks, i.e. 41 5- bushels of 

 grain a year. The bailiffs accounts for the manor of Wood- 

 stock show that in 1242 



"Six servants at Handborough received 16 qrs. of wheat and 15 

 qrs. i bus. of barley ; i.e. 41^ bushels each. 



" Two oxherds at Combe received 5 qrs. i bus. of wheat, 4 qrs. 



2 bus. of barley, and i qr. of peas; i.e. 41^ bushels each. 



" Four servants at Bladon received 13 qrs. of wheat, and 9^ qrs. 

 of barley \ i.e. 36 bushels each." 



And the same quantity appears as the annual allowance to 

 farm servants in later years. In 1274 the farm servants at 

 p 



