1084 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part IV. 



earth at Walworth, Sutton, and 8toke, Considerable extent 

 of chalk hills from Croydon to Nuttfield, and thence narrow- 

 iiiK to the western extremity of the county. A good deal ot 

 black rich land intersjiersed among all the soils. 



Surface. St. Anne's Hill, Cooper's Hill, and Richmond Hill 

 celebrated ; Leith Hill the highest, commands a prospect ot 

 from thirty to forty miles on every side. 



Minerals. Iron ore, fuller's earth, firestone, limestone and 

 chalk. Iron-works on the decline, on account of the deamess 

 of fuel. Abundance of fuller's earth in the southern part of the 

 county, which has been dug since the beginning of the eigh 

 teenth century. Excellent firestone: when hrst quarried 

 soft ; kept under cover a few months becomes compact, and 

 able to endure the action of a common fire. Owing to this 

 stone, Dawson, proprietor of the Vauxhall plate glass 

 works can make plates of such a size as to surprise the 

 French, from whom he discovered the art of plate glass 

 making in the disguise of a common laborer. Excellent lime- 

 stone at Dorking, which hardens under water ; contains a 

 little flint. Chalk used chiefly as a manure. The sand about 

 Ryegate, the finest in the kingdom ; and, in considerable de- 

 mand for egg and hour glasses, writing-sand boxes, &c. At 

 No such, there is a bed of brick earth, firom which fire 

 bricks and crucibles are made. , ^ ,. 



Water. Scarce in many places, particularly on the chalk. 

 Several supplies procured round London, by boring down from 

 one hundred to three hundred feet to the chalk stratum, where 

 the water is excellent, soft, and abundant. 



Fish pimds common on the heaths, at the western side ot 

 the county ; have been used for upwards of two centuries, 

 for breeding and rearing carp and other fish. One of the 

 largest, coutidning one hundred and fifty acres, is near 

 Hersham. . 



Mineral waters numerous. Epsom water is impregnated 

 with sulphate of magnesia, and is purgative. Epsom salts 

 originally made there, now chiefly from common salt water at 

 Lymington in Warwickshire. The other sjltings are more 

 or less impregnated with sulphate of magnesia, carbonate ot 

 lime, and iron. 



2. State of Property. 



No large estates : largest 10,000/. a year. Yeomanry 

 not numerous ; but some gentlemen round Guildford, 

 farm their own estates of from 200/. to 400/. per annum. 

 Estates mostly managed by attornies ; so far proper as to 

 law terms, but as absurd as to agricultural restrictions, 

 as it would be to employ a farmer to draw up the covenants 

 in technical language. Till the farmer becomes active, inqui- 

 sitive, free from prejudice, and intelligent, no covenants, or care 

 of attornies and stewards, will prevent him from injuring him- 

 self and his landlord by bad husbandry. When lie becomes 

 active, &c. he will take care of the landlord s interest for the 

 sake of his own, and the first step to forcing the farmer to 

 become active and intelligent is'to leave him to the exertions 

 of his own mind. Tenures chiefly freehold. 



3. Buildings. 



Few counties that can vie with Surrey in the number and 

 elegance of its country seats. {Encyc. of Garden. Surrey.) Pos- 

 sesses a great advantage over the north and east of Middle- 

 sex and Essex, in this respect, as the prevalence tf the S.W. 

 winds drives away the smoke of London.' Proprietors 

 generally reside on their estates, and eagerly introduce im- 

 provements. 



Farm-houses and office*. Ruinous and mean in the weald, 

 or clayey district bordering on Sussex ; better in other 

 places. Oldest of brick covered with slate, stone, or brick 

 Hogging and tiles ; situations seldom central or convenient to 

 the farm, in villages. Stables not divided into stalls. Cow- 

 houses near London, good. Cottages often large, convenient, 

 and picturesque ,- with a porch, a flower platt and vine in 

 front. 



Drinking ponds. Great attention paid to these on the Sur- 

 rey hills ; generally a first pond, where the water deposits its 

 grossest dirt and mud before it enters .the second. 



4. Occupation. 



Farms of all sizes, but mostly small, forty and fifty acres to 

 three hundred. Largest farm between Guildford and Farn- 

 ham is Wanborough ; it contains 1,600 acres ; formerly occu- 

 pied by Morris Birkbeck, and now by his son. Avers^e 

 size one hundred and seventy acres. Tendency to large farms, 

 bv which the public is unquestionably benefited, certainly by 

 the saving of labor, and, in all probability, by the sui)erior 

 cultivation and increased produce. The driven out farmer 

 may generally support or enrich himself equally well though 

 in a different line of life. " But in every country, in all situa- 

 tions and circumstances, and in our own country, particularly 

 in the situation in which it is now placed, it is of the high- 

 est importance to consider, whether a mere increase of wealth 

 may not be purchased too dearly ; whether it is prudent or 

 wise to diminish the number of those whose souls are knit 

 to their native land, by stronger ties than are known to the 

 mere manufacturer. To the patriot, it can be little satisfaction 

 to see his country the richest in the world, if the measures 

 and causes which make it rich, diminish, in the most trifling 

 degree, its independence ; either.by raising any passion above 

 the love of our country, or by d'iminishing the number of 

 those who must be its most natureil and powerful defenders. 

 To the moralist it can afford little pleasure to be told, that 

 by the saving of agricultural labor, the manufactures of his 

 country will be extended or increased, if he perceive that by 

 the change of employment the health and virtue of part of the 

 community are sacrificed." [Stevenson.) 



Farmers. Old class about the clayey wealds, equal enemies 

 to improvements in agriculture, and relaxations in morals : 

 have no idea of educating their sons, and so little of the 

 spirit of commerce, that they prefer selling their grain to an 

 old customer at a lower price than taking a higher from 

 a new one. Go to market in round frocks, the dress of their 

 forefathers, and shy and jealous to strangers. Nearer town the 

 farmers are more on a level with the age ; but, either unable 

 or unwilling to communicate information ; some exceptions 

 of liberal, enlightened, and communicative men. Many trades- 

 men have turned farmers, and occupy lands near town. 



Rent low. Tithe rigidly exacted, poor's rates, and otlier 

 outgoings high. 



Ideates general, for fourteen or twenty-one years, or on three 

 lives. 



5. Implements. 



Great variety of ploughs, swing ploughs, the Scetch swing 



plough used only in two places ; bad effect of so many dif- 

 ferent sorts of ploughs on the servants. The cultivator used 

 by Birkbeck, and highly approved of : with six horses, goes 

 over eight acrei in a day. Lester's friction threshing ma- 

 chine introduced in a few places, and found to succeed : but 

 it threshes very slowly, and has no advantages over Meikle's, 

 but that of not breaking the straw of wheat. This advan- 

 tage is too trifling ever to render it general. Very few win- 

 nowing machines. Sowing troughs in use, the advantage of 

 which, is, that the sower fills it himself instead of having a 

 woman, toiling through rough ground. Smut machines also 

 in use, in one or two instances. (2648.) 

 6. Arable Land. 



Proportion considerable, tillage bad. Drilling, though 

 introduced by Duket, of Esher, and strongly recom- 

 mended, is confined to a few adjoining parishes, where 

 the soil is light. Fallowing on clays general, but most 

 imperfectly executed. Rotations generally good. 



Turnips, supposed to have been grown in Surrey as long 

 or longer than in any county in England. Sir R. Weston, 

 of Sutton, having described the Flanders culture in 1645, and 

 as he addressed his book to his sons, it is thought they would 

 attempt culture. Very badly cultivated at present, and seldom 

 in raised drills. The Siberian turnip has been tried ; it is a 

 variety between the cabbjige and turnip, but with a root 

 inferior in point of size and flavor to the latter, and a 

 branchy loose top : it does not seem adapted for field cul- 

 ture, though as a novelty it deserves trial and attention. 

 Carrots answer well o?i the sandy soils. Potatoe tops some- 

 times given to cows, cut when in flower ; a bad plan with 

 a view to the tubers. Clover introduced by Sir R. Weston 

 at the same time as turnips. Saintfoin succedswell on calca- 

 reous soils, producing good crops for eight years. In form- 

 ing a new road through a field of saintfoin, between Croy- 

 don and Godslone, the roots were found to have pene- 

 trated several yards below the surface. The culture of hops, 

 brought from Suffolk to Farnham about A.D. 1600 ; prefer a 

 calcareous sub-soil : occupy 800,900 acres. Farnham hops es- 

 teemed more than others, because picked earlier, and hence 

 more delicate, and better sorted. Peppermint, lavender, 

 wormwood, camomile, liquorice, and poppy, grown near 

 Mitcham ; and more extensively than in any other county. 

 One hundred acres of peppermint. Elecampane, rhubarb, 

 soapwort, coltsfoot, vervain, angelica, rosemary, the damask 

 and red roses, hyssop, horehound, marsh mallow, pennyroyal, 

 and several acres of daisies, wall-flowers, sweet-williams, 

 primroses, violets, pinks, bachelors-buttons, and the like, are 

 also grown for Covent Garden market, where they are car- 

 ried, either as entire plants in flower with balls for planting 

 in town, flower -pots or in pots, or the flowers are gathered 

 and sold for nosegays. Weld is grown in a few places 



7. Grass Land. 



But in small proportion to the rest ; most pasture in the 

 wolds. Paring and burning considered by Birkbeck as the 

 best first step of breaking up old grass lands. 



8. Gardens and Orchards. 



Asparagus grown in great quantities at Mortlake, East 

 Sheen, and Battersea. Radish and other seeds also grown 

 extensively at Battersea. Onions for seed at Mortlake and 

 Barnes: though thiefly at Deptford. Three thousand five 

 hundred acres of Surrey employed in raising vegetable's for 

 the London market. Orchards attached to many of the farms, 

 sufTrcient to supply from four to twelve hogsheads of cider. 

 Generally in a very bad state of cultivation ; trees covered with 

 moss; many walnuts grown at Norbury, and at some other 

 places ; produce iO to 50 bushels per tree. 



9. Woods and Plantations. 



The wold formerly a wood : some copse there still : hoops 

 grown ; charcoal for gunpowder made from hazel, dogwood, 

 &c. common charcoal, hop-poles and faggots. Box Hill, for- 

 merly called Whitehill, by tradition originally cultivated, till 

 theEarl of Arundel, in the-reign of Charles I. brought box trees 

 from Kent, and planted there. Many with good reason think 

 it not planted, but aboriginal. Soil of the hill pale loam or 

 chalk'; timber now all cut; brought only five pounds per ton. 

 Many fir trees on chalk hill : at Crowhurst, one fifty feet 

 high and thirty-six in circumference. Brooms made from 

 the ware or spray of birch to a great extent. Fine limes at 

 Beck worth. Osier holts or grounds about Chertsey and By- 

 fleet, brought the same rent one hundred and fifty years 

 ago which they do now. Furze grown for the burning of 

 bricks ; sown both broadcast, and in drills ; cut every 

 three years, and bound like com, then stacked. 



10. Heaths, Commons, and Common Fields. 

 Extensive heaths on south-west ; surface flat, soil black sand, 



and gravel. A number of commons, and great extent of com- 

 mon field lands. 



11. Improvements. 



Draining, paring, and burning. Manuring with London 

 manure of a great variety of kinds. 



12. Livestock. 



Very inconsiderable ; only six hundred and nineteen cows 

 kept for supplying London with milk. 



Duket of Esher used to r^ar calves to a great extent ; 

 many cattle fed by the distillers and starch manufacturers. 

 Adam of Mount Nod, one of the architects of that name, 

 has constructed extensive buildings for cattle, and stall-feeds 

 six hundred at a time. Sheep kept in considerable num- 

 bers on the chalk hills and wealds. Birkbeck has been very 

 successful in cross-breeding with merinos, that is, with the 

 Ryeland merino of Dr. Parry, and the South Down. Im- 

 mense number of pigs fed at the distilleries, and of geese 

 kept on the wealds. Dorking hens are well known. (6685.) 

 A hare warren near Banstead Downs, already described (6613.) 



13. Rural Economy. 



Hands scarce; servants unsettled; prejudiced, like many 

 of their mzisters, against all new practices. 



14. Political Economy. 



Bad roads, though flinU and other good materials abound 

 in many places. An iron railway between Wandsworth and 

 Westham for general use; the first in the kingdom of that 

 kind, the rest being confined to the carriage of goods belong- 

 ing to individuals ; this open to all who choose to employ tha 

 waggons; as a canal is open to all who choose to employ the 

 boats. Though on a level, and admitting of carriage both ways, 

 yet not found to pay. The first canal locks in England were 

 erected on the Wey. Sir R. Weston, of Sutton,- bought th* 



