Potatoes and grains assist their keep in summer, and potatoes, whether boiled or raw, with some little corn, is the food used for fatting. Hams and bacon for the English market prove a great encouragement for this species of stock. The market price for fresh pork is two pence-halfpenny per pound, and for hams and bacon five pence. The average weight is fifty pounds per quarter. Poultry is also numerous, not being annoyed by foxes, foumerts, or other vermin.
Fowls fetch at market six-pence a piece, and weigh four pounds at an average.
Roeder gives an account given to in in the 1880's by old Manx people of food and drink presumeably dating from the late 18th century confirming that milk, oats and potatoes formed the major part of the diet.