390 Letter from a Scots Farmer , 0£h 



FOR THE farmer's MAGAZINE. 



Letter from a Scots Farmer, during a Tour through England, 

 to his I'riend in Edinburgh. , 



LETTER IV. 



Having now feen feveral of the beft cultivated Englifli 

 {liftrifts, I proceed, with great fatisfa£lion, to detail my re- 

 marks on the hiifbandry of Eflex, Suffolk, and Norfolk -, and 

 I am truly forry that the condition of fome of the confermi- 

 nous counties prevents me from bellowing equal praife upon 

 the management therein generally praiStifed. 



Leaving London upon the laft day of June 1799, we travel-, 

 led through the heart of F^Jex. by Rumford and Colchejier, and 

 in our progrefs (.\w much to commend, and very little to cen- 

 fure. The general foil of the diftrift through which we pafs- 

 ed, appeared to be of the kind ufually called loam, though of 

 many varieties -, the greateft part of it, as we were informed, 

 ■was under leafe ; and the poflefT^rs are eminently refpeclable* 



You will eafdy figure, that a pafiing ftranger ought always 

 to fpeak with diffidence upon thofe matters. It is only a fmall 

 part of the country which he can perfonally examine ; and he 

 is neceffitated, in numberlefs inftances, to take his information 

 from perfons, who, perhaps, are unqualified for communicat- 

 ing it in an accurate way. Still, under thefe circumflances, if 

 he fees a country well cultivated and uniformly productive; if 

 he dltcerns good houfes, good fences, good Implements, and 

 good roads; he may fairly pronounce Its rural economy to be 

 in a comparatively perfe£l ftate : and all thefe things are to be 

 found In the county of EfTtx in a fuperior ftyle. 



Very little naked Summer-fallow is difcernible in Eflex ; 

 iievcrthelefs the ground is generally in a clean and hulband- 

 man-iike condition. The antl-fallowlfts bring this as an ar- 

 gument agalnft the necefllty of fallow in other diftridts, 

 without reflecting that the foil, climate, and pracStlces, are 

 materially different from almoll every other part of the king- 

 dom, and cannot be imitated, unlefs perhaps in five or fix 

 counties. The argument. In facSl, cuts two ways. A want 

 cf fallow, either proves, that the land is very well or very ill 

 managed. In Efl^ex, we admit, It is a proof that a proper 

 fvftem is pra6tifed ; but many other counties have as little 



fallow 



