During this same unfortunate first half of the fourteenth century England also suffered from conditions which, if sufficiently intensified, might be those of a glacial period. According to Thorwald Rogers[33] the severest famine ever experienced in England was that of 1315-1316, and the next worst was in 1321. In fact, from 1308 to 1322 great scarcity of food prevailed most of the time. Other famines of less severity occurred in 1351 and 1369. "The same cause was at work in all these cases," says Rogers, "incessant rain, and cold, stormy summers. It is said that the inclemency of the seasons affected the cattle, and that numbers perished from disease and want." After the bad harvest of 1315 the price of wheat, which was already high, rose rapidly, and in May, 1316, was about five times the average. For a year or more thereafter it remained at three or four times the ordinary level. The severity of the famine may be judged from the fact that previous to the Great War the most notable scarcity of wheat in modern England and the highest relative price was in December, 1800. At that time wheat cost nearly three times the usual amount, instead of five as in 1316. During the famine of the early fourteenth century "it is said that people were reduced to subsist upon roots, upon horses and dogs, and stories are told of even more terrible acts by reason of the extreme famine." The number of deaths was so great that the price of labor suffered a permanent rise of at least 10 per cent. There simply were not people enough left among the peasants to do the work demanded by the more prosperous class who had not suffered so much. After the famine came drought. The year 1325 appears to have been peculiarly dry, and 1331, 1344, 1362, 1374, and 1377 were also dry. In general these conditions do little harm in England. They are of interest chiefly as showing how excessive rain and drought are apt to succeed one another.