Agriculture of Durham. 103 



are generally sown ; if it fails to come away at all, beans or peas 

 are occasionally put in. If the clover remains three years, it is 

 generally mown one year, and pastured the other two. The 

 fallow crop is varied according to locality. In the neighhour- 

 hood of the large towns large quantities of potatoes are grown. 

 Tares, peas, and beans also occasionally form the fallow crop ; 

 the last named but seldom in this county compared with others. 



Before leaving this branch of my subject, I may state that the 

 charges which have been brought against the agricultural con- 

 dition of this county have been — 



1st. The abundance of weeds. 



2nd. The extensive prevalence of bare fallowing. 



3rtl. The too rapid succession of corn crops. 



To these I answer : — ' 



1. The weeds are rapidly disappearing under increased drain- 

 age. By far the largest proportion of them consisted of " butter- 

 cups " and other bulbous and tuberose-rooted plants, which were 

 a certain indication of water. There are now many farms in the 

 county which, in point of cleanliness of the soil, may bear com- 

 parison with any farms in the kingdom. 



2. There are some portions of our poor clay soils which, for 

 some time at least, cannot be expected to grow turnips ; but the 

 quantity of them is reducing every year. 



3. The regular " four-shift scheme," which is (with slight 

 modifications) all but universal throughout the countv, has been 

 found most suitable to the character of our soils and local cir- 

 cumstances. Under this course the alternating of corn and green 

 crops is regularly kept up. As to the " two crops and a fallow " 

 system, about which so much has been said, I have already stated 

 that it is almost obsolete ; and it so happens that I can give the 

 period when it began to become so. The following short extract 

 may be interesting. It is taken from a letter dated "..ne, 1794, 

 and written by Mr. Silas Angus, land agent in tiiis county to 

 Sir William Appleby : — 



" Agreeable to desire, I shall attempt to p;ivc you a sketcli of some of the 

 methods of husbandry jmictised in this neighbourhood. Tlie former 2^ract ice 

 was two crops and a fallow ; but for want of being changed, the land in 

 tillage became tired of growing corn, especially oats. In order to remedy 

 that inconvenience, a new system was established under a four-course shift, 

 or what is here calldl 'four adtrs'' — viz., wheat, clover, oats, and fivUow ; 

 and by that alteratiuu great benefit was at first derived. As clover then was 

 rather a novelty to tlie land in this quarter, it generally jn-odnced a jileutiful 

 crop, and was also tin- means of a good crop of oats succeeding it. iJut now 

 the present mode of some ]jlaces hereabouts is under the regulation of tive 

 aders, which is continuing the clover cro|) two years ; and this was tlmught a 

 probalile means of greater improvement." 



Permanent Grass. — The proportion of old grass land is in 



