The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-10-19

The Medieval English Farmer.
Both horses and oxen were used on
the land; wheat, barley, oats, rye and
beans and peas were grown. The me-
1ievai farmer was entirely dependent
On his hay and straw for the winter
keep of his stock, for there were no
winter roots, and the bay was only the
sroduce of native grasses, artificial
grasses being unknown for three hun
lred years longer. Cattle and sheep
were fattened in summer and killed at
winter use; for few could be kept in
condition, save at great expense,
through the winter months. The old
song of Summer is y-cumin in,"
meant much more in those days than it
does in ours; the return of spring and
summer meant a return to fresh meat
and fresh vegetable diet. Onions, gar
lie and mustard were grown, but the
profus;on of garden produce of the
present day was quite unknown, and
food, though abundant, was coarse and
wanting in variety. Prof. Rogers has
noted only one instance of the purchase
of quarter of a pound of ''cabeche"
seed in 145S, by Kings College, Cam
bridge, at the enormous rate of four
shillings per pound, and this was prob
ably an experiment. The cultivation
of the hop was introduced from the low
countries early in the sixteenth century,
and somewhat later sheep-farming be-
gan to take the place of agriculture,
and was subject of complaint and of
legislation. 1.-The practice appears to
have arisen from two cause.-the de-
ficiency of capital. owing to the general
| impoverishment of the country. and
the high prizes of wool" In 1882
some f1ockmasters had 10000. 5000 or
5000 sheep, and it was enacted that in
future no one should have more than
1000. Wheat and rye from the
Baltic were imported in quantity
sufficient to attract the notice of
the Legislature, so that the English
farmer was exposed to competition in
corn while he had the practical monop-
oily of the wool market. As conse-
quence land was laid down in grass,
and vast Enclosures were made from the
common field; and it was this practice,
and the injury done to the poor by de.
ptNluS VI tuCi Su luht
were the chief cause of Ket's rebellion
in 1549, which is remarkable as being
the last attempt which English labor.
ers have made to secure what they be.
lieved to be justice by force of arms"
Poultry and geese were everywhere
reared, and must have been very wei.
come luXuries in winter. The price
was low, capon or goose averaging
I'D. during the fifteenth century. II
should be noted, though the remark is
trite one, that low money value by no
means indicates cheapness, which is
relative TO prices then current, and can
not be compared with the prices of to-
day. The purchasing power of money
in the fifteenth century was extremely
great. The average price of an OK was
1885,: of good saddle-horse 55s.; while
wheat averaged rs. I'D, and oats 2s.
ordinary laborer were barely 4d. day,
and the rent of arabic land did not ex-
coed Cd. an acre. The yield was very
small-not more than fourth of that
of the present day-and it may be put
down that the average yield of wheat
was not over bushels to the acre.
When, in 1914, the debasement of the
coinage begun, notable but variable
rise was effected in every commodity
but one, the exception being glass, the
manufacture of which had been greatly
improved. Taking the average price
of the first lao years rs unity, the. rise
in the price of provisions was 2.71, but
the price of labor rose only 1.62, diff.
ference which sufficiently explains the
evil times that fell on the peasant. The
golden era was past.
From the epoch of Henry's death,
the degradation of the English laborer
begins. For nearly three centuries the
artisan suffered with the peasant; that
is, as long as the combination laws i'm
peded the creation of those labor part.
nerships which we call trade unions.
But the condition of the farm laboreI
has gone on from bad to worse, has be-
come more hopeless. The best and
most capable of them have fled from
their traditional occupation, and at the
time at which am writing QSSD, as
foresaw when l wrote the last words OF
my first volume, sixteen years ago, the
agricultural problem in England is not
the adjustment of local burdens, or the
arbitration of rent, or the revival OF
confidence in those who put capital into
land; but it is assuredly. the recall OF
the agricultural laborer to effective and
hopeful industry. 1t isa striking Illus
tration of the fact that economical his
tory has no break in its chain of causes,
but that we are still engaged with a
problem which had its remote but GER
tain beginning in the wantonness Of
Henry VIII, and in the rapacity of that
aristocratic carmarilla of Adventures
which he planted round the throne OF