Coffee was a new
drink. With the cane sugar was made sweetened puddings, pies, and
drinks. The potato caused the advent of distillation of alcohol
from fermented potato mashes. There was a distiller's company by
1638. Distilleries' drinks had higher alcoholic content than wine
or beer.
The Merchant Adventurers sold in town stores silks, satins,
diamonds, pearls, silver, and gold. There were women peddlers
selling hats and hosiery from door to door and women shopkeepers,
booksellers, alehouse keepers, linen drapers, brewers, and ale-
wives. London had polluted air and water, industrial noise, and
traffic congestion.
Work on farms was still year-round. In January and February,
fields were plowed and harrowed and the manure spread. Also, trees
and hedges were set, fruit trees pruned, and timber lopped. In
March and April, the fields were stirred again and the wheat and
rye sown. In May gardens were planted, hop vines trained to poles,
ditches scoured, lambs weaned, and sheep watched for "rot". In
June sheep were washed and sheared, and fields were spread with
lime and clay, and manured. In July hay was cut, dried, and
stacked. In August crops were harvested, which called for extra
help from neighbors and townsmen who took holidays at harvesting.
Then there was threshing, and the sowing of winter wheat and rye.
In the autumn, cider from apples and perry from pears may be made.
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