1082 STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. Part IV. 



sub-bailiffs under them. The establishments of Bedford, Coke, Curweii, Albemarle, 

 &c. are among the most complete in this kind of farming. 



6988. The farms of professional farmers. It must be obvious, that this class includes 

 more than nine-tenths of all the farms in tlie country. They are of every description of 

 soil, climate, situation, &c. which tlie country affords ; of all manner of sizes, according 

 to the demand created by such as follow farming as a business, and either devoted to the 

 general purposes of corn and cattle, or more particularly for poultry, milking, dairying, 

 garden crops, hops, orchard crops, grazing, breeding, hay, corn, wood, minerals, as 

 stone quarries, &c., or fishes. At the origin of what we now call farming, or when the 

 hiring of land by cultivators succeeded to cultivating them for the landlords, or 

 in partnership with the landlords, as is still the case in Italy and most other coun- 

 tries, farms would of course be small, and farmers men of scarcely any capital or 

 consideration in society. Just emancipated from a state of bondage and villanage, 

 the new created independent tenant could not easily tlirow off the chains which for- 

 merly shackled his mind and prevented his energies from being brought into action, 

 and he could have little or no property when he had no means of acquiring it but by 

 plunder, or preserving it but by concealment. Hence the first tenants were assisted 

 by their landlords, and one remnant of this practice, that of allowing farmers to have a 

 year's rent always in hand ; or, in other words, not to demand the rent till half or a whole 

 year after it is due, still exists in some parts of Scotland and Ireland. In process of time, 

 however, and from various direct and indirect causes, farmers at length acquired some de- 

 gree of capital and respectability ; and as tliey naturally thought of employing the formei-, 

 of course farms began to be enlarged to afford scope, and leases granted to afford secu- 

 rity. This practice has been going on in Britain for more than two centuries past, and 

 receives a fresh impulse whenever the prices of grain rise high, and continue so for some 

 time. At no period have they been so high as about the commencement of the present 

 century, and during no period have the riches and respectability of farmers so much en- 

 creased. More recent political changes, however, have proved singularly disastrous to 

 farmers ; and till the corn laws are either obliterated, or regulated on some permanent 

 and more moderate principle, agriculture and its practisers of every description will re- 

 main liable to the extremes of profitable occupation and ruin. 



Chap. III. 

 Topographical Survey of the British Isles in respect to Agricultxire. 



6989. The British isles, as we have already observed (1254.), are in their present state, 

 naturally and politically more favorable to the practice of the agriculture of ale, butcher 

 meat, and wheat, than any other country in the world. They have their disadvantages 

 both in climate and in civil and political matters ; but, notwithstanding, there is no 

 country in the world where farmers or proprietors are so respectable a class of men, and 

 where such excellent corn, herbage, roots, and hay, either raw, or in their manufactured 

 state of l>read, ale, and butcher meat, is brought to market. 



6990. The following outline of the state of agriculture in each of the different counties of 

 the united kingdom is taken from the Surveys published under the authority of the Board 

 of Agriculture, or the Dublin Society ; from Marshal's remarks on these surveys, and 

 his other writings ; and in some cases, from our own observation ; having at various 

 periods, since the year 1805, been in almost every county in Britain, and in most of 

 those in Ireland. Agricultural improvement is often of so variable and fleeting a nature, 

 that notwithstanding our utmost care, some things may be found here inserted as such, 

 that no longer exist ; and from the period, varying from 12 to SO years, which has elapsed 

 since the surveys were published, many improvements may have been made deserving 

 of insertion which are omitted. These are unavoidable defects attendant on this part of 

 our work ; but though we cannot render it perfect, yet we are of opinion we can bring 

 together a suflRcient number of facts as to the natural and agricultural circumstances of 

 each county, as to render it both interesting and useful to the reader. 



Sect. I. Agricultural Survey of England. 



6991. Ih^ surface of England is estimaited at 32,150,000 acres, almost everywhere 

 cultivated, and no where incapable of cultivation ; in most places varied, gently and 

 beautifully in some districts, and abruptly and on a grander scale in others. Tlie most 

 highly and mountainous districts are those of the north, and the most level those of the 

 east. The most humid climates are those of the north-western counties ; as Cheshire, 

 Lancashire; and the most dry those of the south-east, as Norfolk and Suffolk. The 

 richest grass lands are in the vales of the great rivers, as the Severn, Trent, and Thames. 

 The richest arable lands, in Worcestershire, Warwickshire, and in part of various other 

 counties ; and the best farming, in Northumberland, Durham, and Cumberland. The 

 greatest variety of farming may be seen in the counties round London ; and the greatest 



