A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



acre, the best pasture and meadows from 30^. to ^t^, and land near towns^ 

 reached ^4 to ^^5. 



Farm servants were hired by the year ; a good man-servant was paid 

 £21, and a woman-servant £%, with bed and board in the farmer's house. 

 The married labourers' yearly earnings averaged about ^^38 a year. The 

 cost of labour had doubled within twenty years. The average prices of 

 provisions in Durham for the seven years 1803—10 were: wheat ioj-. a 

 bushel ; beef 7^^'. a lb.; butter is. 6d. a lb.; fowls is. each ; eggs 6d. a dozen ; 

 and potatoes zs. a bushel. The turnpike roads were in good repair, ' but 

 the road from Stockton to Durham is very ill kept ' as well as the great 

 post-road from Darlington to Newcastle, and the township roads were in 

 wretched repair. These latter were kept by statute labour, of which every 

 one did as little as possible, and Bailey suggested that if 6d. to is. in the 

 pound had been charged for this ' every good farmer would cheerfully 

 pay it, rather than have his draughts and his men taken off to perform 

 statute duty.' 



At this time swing ploughs ^ only were used in the county. When 

 Bailey knew these ploughs forty years before, the mouldboards were made of 

 wood, and were very full at the breast, but when he wrote they were mostly 

 made of cast iron. Great attention was then being given to the construction 

 of ploughs so as to lessen the draught and make the mouldboard turn over 

 the furrow in the best manner, as is shown in the full description given by 

 Bailey. In 1770 Clarke of Belford, a northern agricultural improver, had 

 been awarded a Gold Medal by the London Society of Arts for an essay on 

 the construction of ploughs, which was published in Dossie's Memoirs of 

 Agriculture. 



Paring and burning was then a regular practice and had been in vogue 

 for centuries. All turf over about seven years old (including common land 

 reclaimed) was subjected to this process when it was broken up. Four or 

 five expert labourers could pare off sods one inch deep from an acre daily, 

 but Bailey noted the introduction of a paring plough which greatly facilitated 

 this work. This operatipn, which is now practically obsolete, was done in 

 early summer, the turves being afterwards stacked loosely in heaps, and 

 burned when dry enough, after which the ashes and burned soil were care- 

 fully spread. 



Corn drills were at this time in use by one or two of the best farmers, 

 while turnip seed drills were common. Threshing mills were also general, 

 although the first had only been introduced by Robert Colling in 1795, 

 and there was actually one worked by steam in 18 10. Carts had almost 

 entirely taken the place of wagons, and the one-horse cart was coming into 

 use on the roads, although two- or three-horse carts were principally used on 

 the farm. Bailey had also seen a rake, drawn by a horse, on Robert 

 Colling's farm. 



Tithes were drawn in some places, but were usually valued and let every 

 year, according to the value and average crops of grain less cost of marketing. 

 Tithe lambs were due at midsummer, and wool when clipped ; turnip tithe 

 varied from zs. bd. to js. bd. an acre, and potato tithe from ioj. to lbs. 

 Poor rates varied from is. 3^. to zs. bd. a pound in the rural districts, and 



' Ploughs without wheels. 

 360 



