[385] Ibid. p. 92. About 1757 Lucerne, hitherto little grown in England, took its place in the rotation of crops. [386] Ibid. p. 130. [387] _A General Treatise on Husbandry_ (1726), i. 72; cf. c. [388] The black cattle seem to have been spread very generally over England, according to previous writers and to Defoe, who often mentions them. He saw a 'prodigious quantity' in the meadows by the Waveney in Norfolk.--_Tour_, i. 97. [389] Bradley, _General Treatise_, i. 76. [390] Slater, _English Peasantry_, p. 52. [391] _Tour_ (ed. 1724), i. (1) 97, and iii. (2) 73. [392] Ibid. i. 63. [393] J. Lawrence, _New System of Agriculture_, p. 151. [394] Bradley, _General Treatise_, i. 110. [395] _Country Gentleman and Farmer's Director_ (1726), p. 7. [396] Defoe, _Tour_, i. 87. [397] Defoe, _Tour_ (3rd ed.), i. 81. [398] Defoe, _Tour_ (ed. 1724), ii. 1, 134. [399] Bradley, _General Treatise_, i. 160; see also Smith, _Memoirs of Wool_, ii. 169, where the sheep of Leominster, of Cotteswold, and of the Isle of Wight are said to be the best in 1719. The great market for sheep was Weyhill Fair, and Stourbridge Fair was a great wool market. [400] _The West Country Farmer, a Representation of the Decay of Trade_, 1737. [401] _Memoirs of Wool_, ii. 243. [402] Ibid. ii. 399. [403] _Farmer's Letters_ (3rd ed.), p. 27. [404] Cunningham, _Industry and Commerce_, ii. 384. [405] Cunningham, _Industry and Commerce_, ii. 458. [406] Ormerod, _Cheshire_, i. 129. These words were written about 1656. [407] See _Victoria County History: Rutland, Agriculture_. Stilton was eaten in the same condition as many prefer it now, 'with the mites round it so thick that they bring a spoon for you to eat them.' [408] Defoe, _Tour_, i. (1) 78. Cheshire cheese was 2d. to 2-1/2d. per lb., Cheddar 6d. to 8d. in 1724, an extraordinary difference. [409] Bradley, i. 172. [410] Preface to _Horse-hoeing Husbandry_, (ed. 1733). [411] _Horse-hoeing Husbandry_, p. vi. [412] _The West Country Farmer_, above quoted, says wheat growing (in 1737) paid little. Before a bushel can be sold it costs L4 an acre, and the crop probably fetches half the money. [413] _R.A.S.E. Journ._ (3rd Ser.), ii. 20. [414] Cullum, _Hawsted_, p. 216. [415] Tooke, _History of Prices_, i. 35. [416] Wheat averaged: 1718-22 about 27s. 1730 about 30s. 1750 about 30s. 1724 " 36s. 1732 " 24s. 1755 " 35s. 1725 " 46s. 1736 " 30s. 1760 " 38s. 1726 " 35s. 1740 " 42s. 1765 " 42s. 1728 " 52s. 1744 " 23s. [417] Ellis, _Chiltern and Vale Farming_, p. 209. Nothing is charged for tithe and taxes. [418] Ibid. p. 352. [419] See above, p. 177, also p. 199 for Young's estimate in 1770. [420] Nothing is charged for the manure which was carted and spread. [421] John Trusler, _Practical Husbandry_, p. 28. [422] _Country Gentleman and Farmer's Director_ (1726), p. xiii. CHAPTER XV 1700-1765 TOWNSHEND.--SHEEP-ROT.--CATTLE PLAGUE. FRUIT-GROWING