Agriculture of Durham . Ill 



mixed with ashes, where these can be procured. Lime is in 

 very general use, and is procured in most parts of the county 

 easily and of good quality. Lime, as far as I can learn, was 

 found of universal and inestimable benefit in all the cases of 

 improving common lands to which I have alluded ; and, indeed, 

 in the breaking up of old grass generally, it is almost always 

 applied : of course it does not produce the same benefit on land 

 which has not been drained, for it is soon washed through the 

 soil, and, if not taken away entirely, is deposited in a layer be- 

 tween the soil and the subsoil. I once heard of a curious instance 

 where a farmer, accustomed to go through his ordinary routine 

 without much inquiry as to modern improvement, or much study 

 as to the (to him) very " book-learned " doctrines of cause and 

 effect, who wondered very much that all the lime he laid on never 

 seemed to be increasing his crops in a similar way as those of his 

 neighbours. He was used to plough the usual regular depth 

 which his grandfather had ploughed, and he never went below ; 

 consequently, in the course of years, the plough had worn itself 

 a pretty hard road on the top of the subsoil at the poor man's 

 regulated depth. At length the mystery was cleared up, for 

 one year, venturing a little deeper than usual, he turned up a 

 thick layer of lime almost in the condition in which he laid 

 it on. 



Fences and. Size of Inclosures. — There is great room for im- 

 provement in both these particulars. The fences are generally 

 growing ones, made of the thorn. In the western, or higher 

 district, stone walls are used. In some parts of the county they 

 are in good condition, but in others very bad. A great evil in 

 those parts of the county which have been the longest inclosed 

 and cultivated is, the smallncss of the inclosures (from two to six 

 acres) and the breadth of the fences. By both means not only 

 much ground is Avasted, but the drying effects of sun and air are 

 kept from the ground, and consequently the ripening of the crops 

 retarded. An antiquarian, referring to our past history, would 

 easily explain both the smallness of the inclosures and the pecu- 

 liar way in which we see the smallest of them gathered round 

 the various villages. Formerly the whole county was in one 

 vast uninclosed moor, excepting round about the towns or vil- 

 lages, each of which had an extent of ground round it, which 

 was called the " Town-field," or " Stinted Pasture," or " In- Ft 11." 

 The inhabitants did not do muc h in cultivating either grain or 

 green crops beyond what tin; stern necessities of nature would 

 enforce, tlierefore each individual inclosed his little patch of 

 tillage ground as near to liis door as he could get it ; and in addi- 

 tion to this tillage garth he had one or more "ox fjam/s'^ or 

 "stmts" upon the pasture; and an unlimited range upon the 



