Book I. 



AGRICULTURE OF CAMBRIDGESHIRE. 



Id9i 



the silver fir, and others of the genus Plnus at Wobum, 

 planted under the direction of the celebrated Miller ; a fine 

 beech, figured by Pontey in his Forest Pruner. 



11, Wastes. 



Four thousand acres of chalky down at Dunstable, not much 

 any where else. 



12. Itnprovemrnts. 



A good deal drained, especially bogs. Elkineton's mode said 

 to have been tried with very partial success. Bush and straw- 

 draining attempted on the clayey soils, and the mole plough a 

 good deal used in the furrows. Irrigation mtroduced by the 

 Puke of Bedford, and various examples are to be found in 

 diderent parishes on his Grace's estates. Peat is used as fuel, 

 and also burned for the fashes as a manure ; ample experi- 

 ments made on manures, by Dr. Cartwright, at Wobum ; but 

 no agricultural experiments on a small scale can be dei)end- 

 ed on. The dairy at Wobum (% 775.) is a fanciful stmc- 

 ture in Ithe Chinese style; .but the plan and arrangement 

 is not well calculated for keeping milk and butter cool and 

 sweet. 



13. Live Stock. 



Cattle a mixed breed of long and short homed Aldemey, &c. 

 Some dairying conducted as in Buckinghamshire. Some 

 sheep, but of no particular breed ; foUUng generally practised 

 and approved of; horses a heavy breed from Huntingdonshire; 

 rabbit warrens destroyed as much as possible; geese kept. by 

 many from an idea that they preserve the health of the peisrar- 

 ing animals where they feed. Turkeys and pigeons kept before 

 the enclosure in various places, but now much on the decline- 

 Bees kept by a few cottagers and small farmers. 



14. Rural Economy. 



Husbandry business generally performed by day laborers ; 

 though on most large farms a horsekeeper, cowkeeper, shep- 

 herd, and kitchen maid hired by tlie year. 



15. Political Economy. 



Almost all the cross roads, and many of the main roads very 

 bad. Grand Junction Canal passes through a part of the 

 county, and is very useful ; fairs and markets various; manu- 

 factures chiefly plaiting of straw and lace ; children of ten or 

 twelve years of age acquire the art of plaiting while their mo- 



thers sort and bleach the straw, l.vico: maHng, a more sedon 

 taiy employment, and the women ami children generally an. 

 pear sickly. There are school mistresses for teaching boUi 

 straw plaiting and lace making. Begin to leam lace at six or 

 seven years fofa^je; do littie good for two years, at ten years 

 earn two shillings a week, at sixteen as much as can be made 

 l>ythe business, or nearly six shillings a week ; work in sum- 

 mer from six o'clock in the morning Ull sunset, and in winter 

 from nine till eleven at night ; maid servants scarce in conse- 

 quence, but poor rates kept do-.vn, Some rush mats made 

 near the Ouse to the west of Bedford. 



Bedford House of Indtutn/. " The poor in the house arft 

 employeilin the following manner: A manufacture of coarse 

 baize furnishes emjiloyment for all the boys five years of age 

 and some of the men; the remaining part of the men cultivate 

 an acre and a half of garden-ground, and weed and keep in 

 order twenty-five acres of sward land attached to the house. 

 The old women spin flax to make linen for the use of the fa- 

 mily ; the other women (exclusive of those engaged in do- 

 mestic concerns), and girls above six years old make thread 

 lace. One-sixth of the earnings of the nimr is paid weekly to 

 those who work, by way of gratuity. The Governor of the 

 House ot Industry adds, that the above employments have 

 answered the most sanguine expectations of the directors of 

 the establishment." 

 i; Many useful benefit clubs. 



16. Obstacles to l7nprove?nent. 



Want of knowledge and leases. Mice generally destroyed by 



Erofessional rat catchers ; some farmers keep ferrets for the rats, 

 .arks destroy a great deal of new sown' wheat. "They, with 

 other birds, are very abundant in Bedfordshire, especially about 

 Dunstable, where they are caught in traps, in quantities for 

 the London market. Wire worms supposed to be increased by 

 artifi?!ial grasses. 



17. Miscellaneous. 



An agricultural society founded by the Duke of Bedford in 

 1801 ; various premiums offered and paid, to the extent of 

 100/. a year in some years. Cheappublications on agriculture, 

 it is "thought, would be a considerable means of improve- 

 ment. 



TOOO.'HUNTINGDONSHIRE. A dull flat surface of nearly 200,000 acres ; till Edward the First's time 

 one continued forest The soil is almost uniformly good, but injured by water ; it is chiefly under tillage 

 but remarkable for no excellence in agriculture, Rapeseed and mustard are more cultivated than in 

 most other counties, and timber more rare. (Staw's Huntingdonshire, 1793. Maxwell. 1793. Parkin 

 son, 1811. Marshal's Eeview, 1813. Smith's Geological Map, 1821.) 



1. Geographical State and Circmnstances. 

 Climate, tolerably healthy, considering that the east part is 



skirted by fens, and but a small part supplied by water from 

 springs. 



Soil. Loam iJi-evalent, but the county every where spotted 

 with roundish patches of clay, sand, marl, fen, moor, or lakes, 

 which, in the map of soils annexed to Parkinson's Ileport, as- 

 sumes a very singular appearance. 



Water chiefly supplied from ponds; Ouse and Nene the 

 only rivers ; the meres are natural ponds, surrounded by reeds 

 and other aquatic plants, and a considerable zone of marsh or 

 bog, according as the soil may be loam or sand. Whittlesea 

 Mere contains 1570 acres. 



2. State of Property. 



Old enclosed lands in the hands of a few proprietors ; half 

 the county freehold, the remainder almost all copyhold. 



3. Buildings. 



Farm-houses very inconveniently situated, partly owing to 

 the want of high and dry sites on central parts of farms ; some 

 Rood cottages lately erected as the only means of retaining farm 

 servants for any length of time with the same master. 



4. Occupation. 



Many large farms, though small ones predominate ; leases 

 frequent ; lithe in kind. 



5. Implements. 



Plough, with one handle, originally from Holland; one 

 wheel, a circular plate of iron which is kept sharp, acts as a 

 coulter. 



6. Tillage. 



Plough with a pair of horses, or three abreast ; two crops 

 and a fallow the common rotation ; chief crops, wheat, oats, 

 and beans ; rape sown on the fens ; lands either once ploughed 

 out of grass, or pared and burned ; also on uplands ; manured 

 and treated as tumips; seed threshed in the field; straw 

 generally burned, or used for yard fences ; wheat succeeds well 



after rape; hemp sown in a few places; mustard cultivated 

 with great success ; sometimes pays 40/. an acre on land worth 

 not more than 50/, but very uncertain. Parkinson thinks 

 hemp, flax, rape-seed, and mustard, should'be encouraged, as 

 they enrich the farmer, and are all good preparatives for 

 wheat. The only way, he says, to enrich the soil, is to enrich 

 the farmer first. 



7. Grass. 



Some good meadows on the Ouse and Nene ; the pastures 

 lie remote from the farm buildings, but are in general rich, 

 though neglected; require to be pared and bumed, and 

 brought under aration. 



8. Woods and Plantations. 



A good many pollard willows -in the fens, and some osier 

 plantations. 



9. Improvements. 



(ireat want of a general county drainage, such as that of the 

 Bedford level, in the adjoining counties of Lincoln, Cambridge, 

 and Northampton. The advantages of such a drainage is ably 

 pointed out by Parkinson. Embankments very ekten'sive, and 

 the soil being in general a loose porous sand, puddle walls are 

 g3nerally made in the middle of the mound, 



10. Live Stock. 



Stilton cheese, now chiefl.v'made at Little Dalby, in Leicester- 

 shire; is no longer made at Stilton, though it is supposed to 

 have been originally made there about 17'20 ; or, according to 

 some, by a Mrs. Orton, in 17.T0. -'V good many horses bred, 

 and a mixture of Lincoln and Leicester ; folding sheep much 

 practised. No fewer than 271 pigeon houses in this county, 

 and a fev<f bees; one gentleman cultivates rabbits. 



11. Political Economy. 



Bad roads ; a lace manufactorv at Kimbolton; a paper mill 

 at St. Neots ; two sacking manuiactories at Standground ; an 

 agricultural society ^^ Kimbolton. 



7001. CAMBRIDGESHIRE. A flat or little varied surface of 450,000 acres, generally of good soil, 

 and mostly under tillage ; remarkable only for the extent of its fen lands, and their embankment and 

 drainage, both very imperfect. Horses are a good deal bred in the county, and also pigeons. {.Vancouver's 

 Cambridgeshire, 1795. Gooche's Cambridgeshire, 1807. Marshal's Review, 1813.) 



1. Geographical State and Circumstances. 

 r Climate. On the uplands dry and healthy, but in the fens 

 the contrary; there the inhabitants suffer most when the fens 

 are driest. Agues have somewhat duninished smce the fens 

 began to be better drained. .. , , , , . . 



SoUs are very uregularly distributed ; loam, clay, and nch 

 black earth extend themselves 'in irregular masses, and nearly 

 of the same extent. The soU of the fens is rich black, and 

 deep, and may occujiy a third of the whole surface. The ricfi 

 marshes m the vicinity of Wisteach consist of a mixture of 

 sand and clay, or silt ; and thiiuplands consist of chalk, gravel, 

 loam, and tender clay. There are no minerals. 



Rivers. The .Ouse, the Granta or Cam. The Ouse and 



Nene also cross part of the county, and the old and new Bed- 

 ford rivers. All these are navigable for barges, and are kept 

 open in frosty weather by ice-boats, drawn down the stream by 

 eight horses," four on each side. 

 2. Estates. 



Vary much in size. Those of Lord Hardwirke, Duke of 

 Bedford, Duke of Rutland, Sir H. Peyton, and Thorpe, are 



4 



the largest ; greatest part of the county in estates of from 200/. 

 to 600/. and 1000/. per annum ; many from 20/. to 50/. and 

 even 400/. a year, occupied by their owners; tenures of all 

 sorts, and a variety.of college- land .tenures. 



3. Buildings. 

 Farm-houses and'premises in general bad and inconvenient"; 



lath andjilaster, or clay and wattle, the common material.;, and 

 clunch or clay walls in general use. Jennyns.of Bottisham.has 

 adopted ArthurYoung's plan of building stacks on frames, which 

 run on an iron railway, and are pulled into the bam, where they 

 are forked on to the platform of the threshing machine. 

 Cottages " wretchedly bail," excepting a few built by Lord 

 Hardwicke, .and some other gentlemen. 



4. Occupation. 

 Farms from twenty to 100 acres; many from 100 to 1000, 



but few exceed the latter number; tithes taken in kind in 

 many places. 



5. Implements. 

 Ploughs, with a shari' iron wheel, or rutming coulter, a in 



A 2 



