As for prices, in 1707 apples were selling at Liverpool for 2s. 6d. a bushel,[437] a very good price if we allow for the difference in the value of money, but prices then were entirely dependent on the English seasons; no foreign apples were imported, and a night's frost would treble prices in a day. In 1742 at Aspall Hall, Suffolk, apples, apparently for cider, were 10d. a bushel, in 1745 1s. a bushel, in 1746 only 4d., and in 1747 cider there was worth 6d. a gallon.[438] At the end of the century, in 'the great hit' of 1784, common apples were less than 6d. a bushel, the best about 2s. in 1786 the price was twice as high, owing to a short crop. Incidentally there is mentioned in the Compleat Cyderman a novel implement, 'a most profitable new invented five-hoe plough, that after the ground has been once ploughed with a common plough will plough four or five acres in one day with only four horses, and by a little alteration is fitted to hoe turnips or rape crops as it is now practised by the ordinary farmers'; much too favourable an estimate of the ordinary farmer, as Young found horse-hoeing rare.
An acre of good orchard land at this time was let at £2 an acre; and this is a fair balance sheet for an acre[439]:—
| DR. | £ | s. | d. |
| Rent of one acre | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Tithe on 10 hogsheads, @ 6d. | 5 | 0 | |
| Gathering, making, and carriage to and from the pound, @ 3s. 6d. a hogshead | 1 | 15 | 0 |
| Racking twice, @ 6d. | 5 | 0 | |
| Casks and cooperage | 8 | 0 | |
| ———— | |||
| £4 | 13 | 0 | |
| ======= | |||
| CR. | £ | s. | d. |
| 10 hogsheads diminished by racking and waste to 8, @ 12s. 6d. | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| ======= | |||
Leaving a balance of 7s. for spoiling, &c., so there was not much profit in cider-making then. The same authority sets down the cost of planting an acre of apples as:—
| £ | s. | d. | |
| 132 trees, @ 2s. | 13 | 4 | 0 |
| (The custom had been to plant 160 trees to the acre, but this was considered too close.) | |||
| Carriage per tree, @ 2d.; manure per tree, @ 3d.; planting per tree, @ 3d. | 4 | 8 | 0 |
| Interest on £17 12s. 0d. for fifteen years before orchard is profitable, @ 5 per cent | 13 | 2 | 6 |
| Loss of half the rent of the land for the same period, @ 10s.an acre | 7 | 10 | 0 |
| Building cellarage for product per acre | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| ———— | |||
| £43 | 4 | 6 | |
| ======== | |||
For this outlay the landowner would gain an additional rent of £1 a year, so that, according to this authority, growing cider fruit at that time paid neither landlord nor tenant.
FOOTNOTES:
[423] Farmer's Letters, i. 10.
[424] R.A.S.E. Journal (3rd Series), iii. 1.
[425] See the Hyp Doctor, No. 49.