WEST MIDLAND AND SOUTH-WESTERN DISTRICT 229 



Worcestershire ^ (1794) contained from 10,000 to 20,000 acres of 

 wastes, " in general depastured by a miserable breed of sheep, 

 belonging to the adjoining cottagers and occupiers, placed there 

 for the sake of their fleeces, the meat of which seldom reaches the 

 market, a third fleece being mostly the last return they Uve to 

 make." Yet, adds the Reporter, " most of the common or waste 

 land is capable of being converted into tillage of the first quaUty." 

 Considerable tracts still lay in open-fields, especially in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Bredon, Ripple, and to the east of Worcester. *' The 

 advantages from inclosing common fields . . . have been very 

 considerable ; . . . the rent has always risen, and mostly in a very 

 great proportion ; the increase of produce is very great, the value 

 of stock has advanced almost beyond conception ; . . . indeed it 

 is in inclosures alone, that any improvement in the Une of breeding 

 in general can be made." Speaking of the district towards the 

 Gloucestershire border, it is stated that " the lands being in com- 

 mon fields, and property much intermixed, there can be of course 

 but httle experimental husbandry ; being, by custom, tied down 

 to three crops and a fallow. . . . The mixture of property in our 

 fields prevents our land being drained, and one negligent farmer, 

 from not opening his drains, will frequently flood the lands of ten 

 that He above, to the very great loss of his neighbours and com- 

 munity at large. Add to this, that although our lands are naturally 

 well adapted to the breed of sheep, yet the draining etc. is so little 

 attended to in general, that, out of at least 1000 sheep, annually 

 pastured in our open fields, not more than forty, on an average, are 

 annually drawn out for slaughter, or other uses ; infectious disorders, 

 rot, scab, etc. sweep them off, which would not be the case if property 

 were separated." Of the pasture commons, it is said that they are 

 " overstocked," " produce a beggarly breed of sheep," and " are 

 of little or no value." Again, it is stated that, where enclosures 

 " have been completed fifteen or twenty years, property is trebled ; 

 the lands drained ; and if the land has not been converted into 

 pasture, the produce of grain very much increased ; where converted 

 into pasture, the stock of sheep and cattle wonderfully improved. 

 Where there are large commons, advantages are innumerable, 

 to population as well as cultivation, and instead of a horde of 

 pilferers, you obtain a skilful race, as weU of mechanics as other 

 labourers." 



^ Pomeroy's Worcestershire (1794), pp. 17, 16, App. pp. 2, 3, 5. 



