Book I. 



AGRICULTURE OF HERTFORDSHIRE. 



1087 



Tithes average 4s. 9J. to 6t. per acre wheg compounded 

 for. Many farms held on running leases terminable or 

 renewable every seven years. The refusal of leases in- 

 creasing. 



5. I7?iplemenfs. 



[>loUi 



768 



^^v-^-^w^ 



.Effl 



Essex plough, a large unwieldy implement, with two wheels. 

 A great variety of swing ploughs, all bad compared with the 

 Rotheram kind or Northumberland plough. An iron road- 

 cleaning plough by Western ; a concave roller and scrajjei 

 attached, delineated in the report, but no reason given for 

 the shape. Manv cultivators, 

 scufflers (fig 768.) &c. delineated, 

 and a donkey hoe. Some of Fas- 

 more of Doncaster's threshing 

 mills, and winnowing machines, 

 in use. The Scotch cart, plough, 

 and other improved implements 

 introduced by Western. Flemish 

 scythe tried, but found not to an- 

 swer ; did not understand its use. 

 I'attison of Maldon has made an 

 ingenious improvement of the 

 common sowing basket ; he has made the bottom a wire sieve 

 for sifting out the seeds of weeds in the motion of sowing, 

 and attached a cloth bag beneath for catching them. An 

 ant-hill machine. Good specimens there of amateur improve- 

 ments on implements. 



6. Enclosing. 



Essex for ages an enclosed county ; still some waste to enclose. 

 Hedges broad and mixed plants, and with pollard trees. 



7. Arable Lands. 



Cultivated better than nine in ten of the other counties ; 

 plough with two horses or three horses abreast without a dri- 

 Ter ; fallows universal ; rotations good : potatoes cultivated to a 

 great extent for the London market. Carrots in Tarious places 

 planted for seed three feet apart ; produce five or six cwt. per 

 acre, sometimes ten or twelve ; rye-grass disliked generally ; 

 wireworm comes after it, and is sure to destroy wheat. Rape, 

 ribwort for seed ; ho)is in a few parishes. Saintfoin suc- 

 ceeds well on poor calcareous soils; some lucern. Wire- 

 worm often injurious to young wheat, after clover leys ; rolling 

 and treading lessens its effects ; on strong soils slugs very 

 troublesome. 



8. Grass Lands. 



Z Extensive marshes and salt-ings, (or salUislets.) 



9. Gardens and Orchards. 



Some cherry orchards at Burnham ; many cottages with- 

 out gardens. 



10. Woods and Plantations. 



Fifty thousand acres chiefly natural and ornamental scenery. 

 Some 'fine old elms at GossiFord. At Saint Osyth the three 

 original Lomhardy poplars which Lord Rochford brought from 

 Italy about 1758, and from which the greater part of those in 

 the kingdom have been raised ; they are seventy feet high and 

 seven feet three inches in circumference, five feet from the 

 ground ; a Portugal laurel more than fifty-two yards in circum- 

 ference, and a very large arbutus. The largest abele trees in 

 England at Bellhouse, Aveley ; large elms ; Lord Petre has 

 sold thirteen oaks for 600/. at LV.a load including top and bark. 

 Oaks at Hatfield worth 100 guineas each. Hatfield broad oak 

 celebrated, but now in ruins. An oak at Wimbish increased 

 in girth, four and a half inches in thirteen years ; a larch two 

 feet nine inches in the same time ; the larch, however, was 

 younger. 



11. Wastes. , . 

 Fifteen thousand acres ; said that in James the First s time 



almost the whole county was waste. 



12. Improvements. 



A good deal of draining; a machine in use like the Flemish 

 mouldebaert Cfe- 64.) for lowering the surface of ploughed 



lands at those places where they intend making croK-furrows 

 to carry oft' the water from the regular furrow<. The drain- 

 ing wheel (3978.) in use, inventor not mentlonetl. Chalk much 

 used as a manure. 

 13. Live Stock. 



Essex never famoiis for this branch. The largest dairy 

 farms at or near Epping, famous for its butter and cream ; 

 no particular sort of cows kept; Derby and Leicestershire 

 breeds preferred, but any taken ; fed on natural and artificial 

 grasses in summer, and hay .ind grains in winter : dairies built 

 on the north sides of the farm houses ; milk kept in troughs 

 lined with lead, which hold nine to ten gallons or milk, five to 

 six inches in depth. This in winter is skimmed four, and In 

 summer two or three times, and the cream, after being kept 

 three or four days, churned ; milk given to hogs. A few cows 

 kept for milk ; in other places for suckling calves, and feeding 

 on the marshes. Western has the fintrst swine in the county ; 

 feeds them in what he calls a hog case ; a cage which effectually 

 prevents the animal from taking exercise. A hog lialf fat put 

 mto a case gains fifteen pounds a week, if well fed with l^rley 

 meal and water. A miller, near Maldon, has made a treble 

 case on wheels, to keep moving about on grass land, for its 

 improvement. A portable bridge, carried on a pair of wheels, 

 for passing sheep over marsh ditches, in use by Wakefield of 

 Boumham. (J^. 769.) A decoy for ducks and other aquatic 



769 



birds in Mersea island, the largest in the county. Every per 

 son that approaches a decoy, takes a piece of lighted turf stuck 

 on a table fork in his hand to prevent the ducks from smelling 

 man. Without this caution they will quit the pond. A decoy 

 at Goldhanger, at which one waggon load and two cart loads of 

 dun birds were taken at one haul of the nets ; but the disturb- 

 ance so frightened such as escaped, that no more were taken 

 that season. Seven fish ponds at Spaines Hill for carp, tench, 

 and eels. A chain of ponds at Ijeigh's Priory, belonging to 

 Guy's hospital, near a mile in length, and occupying about 

 thirty acres, once completely sluiced and carefully cultivated, 

 now dry and n^Iected. 



14. Rural Economy. 



Labor done generally by the piece. 



15. Political Economy. 



Roads mostly good ; few canals ; various fairs ; and some 

 cattle markets. In the creeks of Crouch, Blackwater, and 

 other rivers and estuaries, considerable quantities of oysters 

 are deposited for breeding. The produce is afterwards dredged 

 and deposited at Wivenhoe and other places for feeding. 

 What are called Colchester oysters are fed there, and sent to 

 Hamburgh,Flanders, and France, in time of peace,as well as to 

 London. Oysters are also dredged on the Hampshire coast, 

 and fed in the Coin, or Colchester beds. No distinct account of 

 the oyster economy, however, is given in the report. There 

 are salt-water ponds for various sorts of sea fish in Foulness 

 island ; the fish are caught in w^eirs on the extensive sandy 

 coasts, and deposited, when plentiful, in these ponds, whence 

 they are dragged for with small nets, as wanted. 



Matfvfadures of woollen have existed from time immemorial 

 in the county ; also of sacks, hop bags, calicoes, baize, lime, 

 bricks. Much baize made at Colchester, Cogge's Hall, and 

 other plEices, for Spain. A society of agriculture at Chelmsford. 



ax dgand in old farmirig books 150 yeirs ago. One or two 

 threshing machines of ftleikl' kird. IJi^'TtO.) 



J BT^lT^^/l 



GPQ? HERTFORDSHIRE. A surface of upwards of 400,000 acres, the north part forming a chalky 

 ridge, \vhicli extends across the kingdom in this direction ; the general features are rich, woody, and the 

 agriculture various, chiefly tillage ; the corn produced, eqtial in quality to any in the kingdom Elhs, a 

 well known agricultural author, farmed in this county. ( Walker's Report, 1795. Arthur loung's Survey, 

 1807. Marshal's Review, 1818.) ^^^ 



770 



1. Geographical State and Circutnstances 



Climate, dry and healthy. ^ ,, , .. 



Soil, chiefly loam and clayev loam, next chalk, and a smaU 

 part bordering on Middlesex "gravel ; vales, rich sandy loams, 

 chiefly under pasture, and woods very beautiful. 



Much divide^ the county being a favorite one for wealthy 

 persons building villSw and other retreats. 7000/. a year the 

 largest estate ; great part copyhold, which seUs here at six years 

 purchase less than freehold. 



3. Buildings. , ^ 

 Hatfield, Cashioburv, Ashridge (partly also in Bucks), Gor- 



hambury. Brocket, the Hoo, the Grove, Gilstone, Ware Park, 

 &c., noble mansions. Brown's farm yard, at Nortn Mims, 

 one of the best in the county. Immense barns at North 

 Mims and Bedfordburv. Gutters to the eaves of farm buildinps 

 at Alkenham ; wide fattening stalls, with conveniences for 

 giving hay, water, and oil-cake. Cottages seldom with land 

 Attached. A moveable sheep house, at Hillhouse, a cumbrous 

 expensive affau-, of which plans, sections, &c. are given in the 

 report. 



4. Occupation. , ^ 

 Farms small, largest 500 acres ; many of the very small 



farmers who rent 30/. a year worse off than day laborers. Sir 

 John Sebright, of Beachwoo<l, a scientific breeder, farms 7liu 

 acres, 300 of which is in arable and well cultivated. The 

 Earl of Bridgewater, at Ashridge, farms .500 acres, l^ides the 

 park of 1080 acres. The Marchioness of Salisbury farms 90 

 acres, besides the park of 10.50 acres, and has made many cu- 

 rious experiments ; a prejudice against leases. 



.6. Implements.. 



Plongh large and unwieldy, with two large wheels, the same 



fi. Enclosures. ' 



Various, hut still some commons and open fields ; old fences 

 of mixed s))eries ; new ones of thorn ; planting well under- 

 stood, but the cut with the bill made in a direction downwanfs 

 instead of upwards, as in Berwickshire, by which thestem 

 throws out a brush of small >-vUp at the wound, intaa of 

 few strong healthy hoot<. 



