In the seventeenth century the practice of liming and marling, which had been largely discontinued since the fourteenth century, was revived (Westcote, in his _View of Devon_ in 1630, calls liming, &c., a new invention), and there was also a great improvement in implements. Patents were taken out for draining machines in 1628, for new manures in 1633-6, ploughs 1623-7 and 1634, mechanical sowing 1634-9. Only six were taken out, however, between 1640 and 1760 that concerned agriculture.[255] The Civil War checked the improvement, for though the great mass of the people had nothing to do with either party, the country was of necessity in a very unsettled state, and both sides plundered indiscriminately. Yet in some parts, as in Devonshire, so many of the able men served in the two armies, that few but old men, women, and children were left to manage the farms, and even they were afraid to grow more than enough to supply themselves since both armies seized the crops.[256] These bad effects lasted for some time afterwards; Chapple, a Devonshire land agent of the eighteenth century, says he had talked with people who remembered the state of husbandry in the last ten or twelve years of the reign of Charles II, when in many parts of Devonshire an acre or two of wheat was esteemed a rarity. That the rate of progress in the century was not more rapid is attributed by Blyth to several causes[257]:-- 1. Want of leases, by which tenants were deprived of security. 2. Discouragement to flood (irrigate) land, from the risk of law suits with neighbours. 3. Intermixture of different properties in common fields. 4. Unlimited pasturage on commons, by which they were overstocked. 5. The want of a law compelling all men to kill moles. 6. The excessive number of water-mills, to the great destruction of much gallant land. The average price of wheat during the seventeenth century was 41s. a quarter, of barley 22s., and oats 14s. 8-1/2d. Oxen averaged about L5 apiece, cows much less, about L3, and there was not much change in their value during the century. Sheep were about 10s. 6d., and a cart-horse in the first half of the century from L5 to L10, in the second half from L8 to L15. Beef rose from 2d. a lb. in the early part of the century to 3d. at the close of it. Wool remained stationary at from 9d. to 1s. per lb. [258]A proclamation of 1633 fixed the following prices for London poulterers and victuallers:-- s. d. Best turkey-cock 4 4 Duck 8 Best hen 1 0 3 eggs 1 1 lb. best fresh butter in winter 6 1 lb. best fresh butter in summer 5 1 lb. best salt butter 4-1/2 Best fat goose 2 0 " crammed capon 2 6 " pullet 1 6 " chicken 6