From 1589 to 1590 inclusive, the daily wages, without board, of a ditcher were 4d., a thresher 6d., a hedger 4d., a gardener 10d., and a master-mason 14d. In 1533 it was enacted that no tenant should hold more than two farms at once; and fifty-five years later sundry penalties were imposed upon any one erecting cottages for the agricultural population without attaching four acres of land to each, also for allowing more than one family to occupy a cottage at the same time.[48] A law was passed in 1597, directing that all houses of husbandry which had fallen into decay within a period of seven years should be rebuilt, and from twenty to forty acres of ground apportioned to each.[49] The average yields of grain per acre on well-cultivated soils during the latter half of the sixteenth century were—wheat 20 bushels, barley 32 bushels, and oats 40 bushels. The subjoined tables contain the average prices of some of the common articles of consumption:— In 1500. In 1541. In 1590. In 1597. 12 Pigeons 4d. 0s. 10d. 1s. 0d. 4s. 3d. 100 Eggs 7d. 1s. 6d. 3s. 6d. 1 Goose 4d. 0s. 8d. 1 Chicken 1d. 0s. 8d. 1 Lb. of Butter 0s. 3d. 0s. 4d. In 1581, the charge for shoeing a horse was 10d., and sometimes 12d. Here it may be noticed, although perhaps rather digressive, that the herb tobacco was introduced into this country sometime during the summer of 1586, by a party of Englishmen, who for a short time colonised the island of Roanoak, near the coast of Virginia, but, having quarrelled with the aborigines, were removed home in the ships of Sir Francis Drake. Camden, writing of these men, says:—“They were the first that I know of that brought into England that Indian plant which they called _tabacca_ and _nicotia_, or _tobacco_, which they used against crudities, being taught it by the Indians. Certainly, from that time forward, it began to grow into great request, and to be sold at a high rate; whilst in a short time many men, everywhere, some for wantonness, some for health sake, with insatiable desires and greediness, sucked in the stinking smoke thereof through an earthen pipe, which presently they blew out again at their nostrils; insomuch that tobacco-shops are now as ordinary in most towns as tap-houses and taverns.” The following rhymes, descriptive of the games and recreations common in Lancashire amongst the youth of both sexes, were written in 1600, by Samuel Rowland:—