[Sidenote: English wheat.] Englysshe wheate hath a dunne eare, fewe anis or none, 40 and is the worste wheate, saue peeke-wheate. Peeke-wheete [Sidenote: Peek-wheat.] hath a red eare, ful of anis, thyn set, and ofte [Sidenote: [Fol. 25_b_.]] tymes it is flyntered, that is to saye, small corne wrynkeled and dryed, and wyll not make whyte breade, but it wyl 44 growe vpon colde grounde.
[Sidenote: Carefully clean seed-corn.] This wheate and rye, that thou shalte sowe, ought to be very cleane of wede, and therfore, er thou thresshe thy corne, open thy sheues, and pyke oute all maner of wedes, and than thresshe it, and wynowe it cleane, 4 and so shalt thou haue good clene corne an other [Sidenote: In Essex and Kent they fan the corn.] yere. And in some countreys, aboute London specyallye, and in Essex and Kente, they do fan theyr corne, the whiche is a verye good gise, and a great saueguarde for 8 shedynge of the corne. And whan thou shalte sell it, if it be well wynowed or fande, it wyll be solde the derer, and the lyghte corne wyll seme the husbande in his house. 12
36. ¶ To seuer pees, beanes, and fytches.
[Sidenote: Sift your peas and beans.] Whan thou haste thresshed thy pees, and beanes, after they be wynowed, and er thou shalte sowe or selle them, let theym be well reed with syues, and seuered in [Sidenote: [Fol. 26.]] thre partes, the great from the small, and thou shalte gette 4 in euerye quarter a London busshell, or there about. For [Sidenote: Separate small from large.] the small corne lyeth in the holowe and voyde places of the greate beanes, and yet shall the greate beanes be solde as dere, as if they were all together, or derer, as a man 8 may proue by a famylier ensample. Let a man bye [Sidenote: 120 herrings, at 2 a penny, cost 5 shillings;] .C. hearynges,[26] two hearynges for a penye, and an other .C. hearynges, thre for a peny, and let hym sell these .CC. hearinges agayne .v. heringes for .ii. d.; nowe hath 12 he loste .iiii. d. For C. hearinges, .ii. for i. d., cost v. s., [Sidenote: 120 herrings, at 3 a penny, cost 3_s._ 4_d._; or 8_s._ 4_d._ in all.] and C. hearynges, .iii. for a peny, coste .iii s. and .iiii d., the whiche is .viii. s and .iiii. d.; and whan he selleth .v. herynges for .ii. d., xx. heringes cometh but 16 [Sidenote: 20 herrings, at 5 for 2_d._, cost 8_d._; 12 times as much are 24 groats, or 8_s._] to .viii. d. and there is but .xii. score heringes, and that is but .xii. grotes, and xii. grotes, and that cometh but to .viii. s. and so he hath lost .iiii. d. and it is bicause there be not so many bargeins, for in the bienge of these .CC. 20 heringes there be .v. score bargeins, and in the sellinge of the same there be but .xlviii. bargeyns, and so is there lost .x. hearinges, the whiche wolde haue ben .ii. [Sidenote: Always buy by gross sale, and sell by retail.] bargeyns moo, and than it had ben euen and mete. And 24 therfore he that byeth grosse sale, and retayleth, muste nedes be a wynner. And so shalt thou be a loser, if thou sell thy pees, beanes, and fytches together: for than [Sidenote: [Fol. 26_b_.]] thou sellest grosse sale. And if thou seuer them in thre 28 partes, than thou doest retayle, wherby thou shalte wynne.