ENGLAND. 



733 



Statistics^ haps in Lincolnshire, than in any other county ; and 

 """Y"""* 1 Mr Young calculates the profit upon them at L. 47 per 

 cent. The annual sale of produce is in general esti- , 

 mated at from .0 to 8 couples per acre. The breeds 

 chiefly employed on warrens, are the common grey 

 and the silver grey. The fur of the first, which is the 

 most prevalent, is chiefly used in the manufacture of 

 hats. The skins of the tatter kind, which in general 

 are nearly double the value of those of the other sort, 

 are dressed as furs for the China market. 



foultrr. The number of poultry kept in farm-yards is not 



nearly so numerous now as it was, when farms were 

 smaller, and thrashing machines were less common. 

 There are several breeds in England, but the Dorking 

 brecxl is the most remarkable and valuable. At Oak- 

 ingham, hi Berkshire, fowls are fattened or stuffed, and 

 upwards of L. 150 worth frequently sold in a market 

 day. The chickens of this country are inferior in fla- 

 vour to those of Ireland and France. There are differ- 

 ent breeds of ducks kept in England ; but the most 

 common arc the white or English breed, and the dark 

 brown or speckled. Perhaps as many of these birds 

 are kept in Buckinghamshire as in any other county ; 

 it being calculated, that ducks to the value of L. 4000 

 are fattened Huuully for the London market. Geese 

 arc numerous on most of the commons in this country ; 

 but in no part are they kept in such vast quantities as 

 in the fens of Lincolnshire, where different individuals 

 possess as many as a thousand breeders. They are kept 

 for the sake of their quills and feathers, being stripped, 

 while alive, once a year for their quills, and four or 

 five times for the feathers. It is scarcely credible what 

 immense numbers of these birds are driven annually 

 from distant counties to London for sale, frequently in 

 droves of 2000 or 3000. In the year 1783, one drove 

 containing upwards of 9000 passed through Chelms- 

 ford, or their way from Suffolk to the metropolis. 

 Great numbers of geese are also kept in the marshes of 

 Somersetshire ; and it in remarked, that the best goose 

 feathers for bt-ds come from this county. 



SECT. VI. Timber. 



In enumerating the agricultural products of Eng- 

 land, the timber must not be forgotten. This grows 

 either in the hedge rows, in the woods and plantations 

 of private proprietors, or in the royal forests. In the 

 southern, and particularly in most of the south-western 

 and western counties, the quantity of timber which 

 grows in the hedge rows, or in the pasture fields, is 

 very great. In some parts of England, also, much 

 timber grows in woods and plantations ; so that, taking 

 the whole of England, it is calculated, that on each 

 estate, the value of the growing timber is equal to two 

 Woodland years rent. The principal woodland counties are Kent, 

 aunties. Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, Worcestershire, Cheshire, 

 and parts of Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Berkshire, 

 Leicestershire, &p. It may in general be remarked, 

 that the western counties arc better wooded than the 

 eastern ; and the southern than the northern. It is 

 calculated, that in the county of Worcester alone, there 

 are in the inclosures, between 300,000 and 400,000 

 trees, principally oak, ash, elm, and willow, which 

 ,t be removed, without . ' !< injury either 



to the proprietor or the occupier of the Mill. 



Ok ii by far the most important, though not the 



abundant of English trees. It flourishes in great 



perfection on the Wealds of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex ; 



in the hedge rows of Cheshire, in Monmouthshire, Statistics. 

 Flintshire, and several other parts of England and s T'"' ' 

 Wales ; but there are some counties that produce very 

 few oaks indeed, considering their size, perhaps not 

 more than may be sufficient for their own consumption, 

 such as Middlesex, the greater part of Hertfordshire, 

 Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, So- 

 mersetshire, Gloucestershire, (with the exception of the 

 forest of Dean,) Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, 

 Suffolk, and several others. 



But the principal supply of oak is derived from the Royal h. 

 Royal Forests, of which the following statement will rest,-, 

 shew the extent of the land, in which the timber be- 

 longs to the crown : 



A. n. p. 



In New Forest, 66,942 3 26 



Dean Forest, 23,015 3 29 



Aliceholt and Woolmer, . . . 8,694 1 31 



Whittlewood, 4,850 3 32 



Salcey, 1,847 23 



Whichwood, 3,709 3 5 



Waltham, . . . . 3,278 3 2 



Sherwood, 1,466 3 1O 



Bere, 926 2 13 



Rockingham, . 860 3 23 



115,594 34 



Besides the timber in these forests, the crown pos-- 

 sesses much of it in Windsor Forest, and in the lands 

 belonging to it, in the Duchies of Cornwall and Lan- 

 caster. 



It is a generally received opinion, that the growth Oak. 

 of oak timber is on the decline in this kingdom ; and 

 this opinion is confirmed by the result of two investi- 

 gations, which were made at different and very distant 

 periods, into the state of the oak timber in several of 

 the Royal Forests. In the year. 1608, a survey was 

 made of all the timber that was fit for felling in the 

 Royal Forest, and other estates of the crown. The 

 whole, however, was not completed, neither the Fo- 

 rest of Dean, nor that of Whichwood, being comprised 

 in the surveys ; but the result appears to have been, 

 that on the part of the Crown's estate that was survey- 

 ed, there must have been then growing about 649,880- 

 loads of timber fit for the navy, and 1,148,660 loads of 

 what was doated and decayed. In 1783, another sur- 

 vey was taken, by order of the House of Commons^, 

 from which it appeared, that in New Forest, Aliceholt 

 and Woolmer, Bere, Whittlewood, Salcey, and Sher- 

 wood, there were only 50,445 loads of timber fit for 

 the navy ; whereas, in 1608, in these forests, there were 

 234,22!) ; and that, in 1783, there were iu these forests 

 only 35,554 loads of decayed trees ; whereas, in 1608, 

 there were 265,145 ; so that the quantity of timber in 

 1783, in those forests, was little more than the sixth 

 part of what it was at the former period. The general 

 fact of the decrease of oak timber in nearly all the 

 counties_of England was further confirmed in 1791, by 

 the answers which were returned by some of the prin- 

 cipal timber merchants and land-surveyors, as well as 

 by the chairman of the Quarter Sessions of the several 

 counties in England and Wales, to questions sent to 

 them by the commissioners of the land revenue. 



Besides oak, elm, ash, beech, alder and willow are Elm, ash, 

 common in the hedge rows, &c. of several of the coun- &c> 

 ties. It is impossible to form an estimate of all these 

 kinds of trees. Mr Malcolm, in his survey of Surrey, . 



