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

According to the _Manydown Manor Rolls_ the Wootton churchwardens in
1600 paid from 8s. to 11s. for calves, 4s. 4d. for a fat lamb