256 
PROVISIONS. 
counties, more particularly those of Warwickshire and 
Staffordshire. A second, and perhaps of equal conse¬ 
quence, is the encroachment luxury has made on the 
mode of living of the inhabitants in general, from 
which even the farmer is not exempted. - There are 
employed every week, on an average, from twenty to 
thirty horses, in conveying the productions of the 
butter and poultry market, from Worcester alone, for 
the consumption of Birmingham and its neighbour¬ 
hood, besides what is procured from the markets of 
Droitwich and Bromsgrove. Those employed in car¬ 
rying vegetables, and other produce, raised by the 
Evesham gardeners, are still more numerous. Pro¬ 
visions are not, however, on the whole, particularly 
dear, the certainty of a ready sale being a sufficient 
inducement to most of the farmers on the confines of 
the counties of Gloucester and Hereford, to give a 
preference to this market; where the average price of 
butter in summer, is qd. per pound, in winter, I2d.; 
good family cheese is seldom under 5d.; beef, those 
parts which are more particularly called for by the 
labouring part of the inhabitants, may in general be 
had in quantities, from 3|d. to 4d., and mutton 4fd.; 
veal, for a considerable part of the season, 4d. and 
sometimes under. The price of wheat (at Worcester, 
where the measure is 8f gallons), with all the other 
productions of the corn market, have varied very consi¬ 
derably within the last seven years ; at present, many 
of the articles run remarkably high : the price of 
wheat, 7s. 6d. to 8s. 2d. ; barley, 4s. 6d. to 5s. ; oats, 
3s. (id. to 4s. 6d. ; horse beans, 6s. 2d. to 7s. 2d.; 
pease, 6s. lOd. to 7s. 4d.; malt, 7s. 6d. ; hops of the 
best gathering, 3l. 10s. to 51. The price of cyder and 
perry is extremely fluctuating. It is necessary to re¬ 
el mark; 
t 
