1094 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Paat IV. 



9hal considers them as the grave of morality and independent 

 policy. 



14. Obstacles to Improvement. 



The great abundance ot game in tlie county Is such, that In- 

 stances are given of corn having been injured to the extent of 



half and three-fourths of its value by hares and pheasants, 

 which are common evf ry wliere, and on the sand district mere 

 especially. 



An agricultural society, called the Milford society, meets al- 

 ternately at Milford and Burj-. 



7003. NORFOLK. A flat surface of 240,000 acres, chiefly of a loamy and sandy soil, and devoted to 

 the growth of com, and the fattening of cattle and sheep. This county has acquired celebrity for its ge- 

 neral culture, and especially for that of turnijis and clover. It displays a great variety of practices, and 

 abounds in wealthy farmers. It is also noted for the estate of Coke, a true patriot, the most munilicent 

 of landlords, and greatest friend to farmers. Norfolk, in short, was formerly reckoned the finest county 

 in EiTgland for agriculture, as Northumberland is at present. Mackie' nursery at Norwich, the property 

 and under the direction of a lady, is one of the most extensive and best managed of provincial nurseries. 

 {Kent's Norfolk l/9o. loung's Norfolk, 1801. Marshal's Remew, 1813. Stnith's Geological Map, 1819.) 



1. Geographical State and Circumstances. 

 Climate colder and more backward than Suffolk; N. E. 



winds severely felt in spring ; salubrity of the air affected by 

 the fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire to the extent of 

 5 or 600,000 acres, which lie on the west side of the county. 



Soil. A sandy loam or sand ; Kent savs, similar and equal 

 in value to that of the Austrian Netherlands. There is a small 

 patch of silt or warp clay on the borders of Lincolnshire, 

 and of rather stiffer clay on the borders of Cambridt,eshire. 



Water. The sea and rivers for navigation ; watering ponds 

 for cattle made at Holkham., each to serve four enclosures, 

 forty-two feet square at bottom, twelve and seven feet deep, 

 bottom and sides well covered with sand ; within a vard of 

 the top, the clay two feet thick, and paved with bricks" set on 

 edge. These ponds made by men from Gloucestershire at two 

 and sixpence per superficial y ard. To divide the ponds for four 

 fields, a large stone with a hole wrought m it to receive a post, 

 is necessary at the centre, and the post has mortices to receive 

 rails from the sides. 



2. Property/. 

 Estatesof allsizes; oneof 25,000^ a year, one of 14,000/., one 



of 1.3,000/., two of 10,00(., many of" 5000/. Land sells cur- 

 rently at thirty years purchase. Tenure by freehold three-fifths, 

 church, collegiate, and corporate estatos one-fifth,: and copy- 

 hold under lay lords one-fifth. 



3. Buildings. 

 Some noble seats of proprietors. Kent says farm buildings 



are on too large a scale; ''they are always crying out for bam- 

 room, though wheat is preserved cheaper and better on stad- 

 dles;" bams on a farm of 1001. a year that have cost 300/. 

 Coke has expended above 100,000/. on farm houses ; bams 

 at Holkham 120 feet long by 30 broad and 30 high, surrounded 

 with sheds for sixty head of cattle; walls of fine white brick, 

 and roof of blue slate. At Lyderstone an immense bam 

 of Coke's, containingthe crop of 140 acres. Seven men neces- 

 sary on the goff or mow, at the unloading of every waggon, and 

 dare not venture to tread the corn for fear of bursting the 

 l)am ; farmers fond of immense bams. In building Coke has 

 substituted milled lead for ridge tiles to the roofs'; copper 

 vards to all locks j front edges of mangers are rollers covered 

 with tin, mangers themselves plated with iron ; bottoms of 

 the stall fences of :Penryn slate. In building walls not to be 

 roo.ed, they are drawn in to a brick's length at top. Lime- wash 

 used as a preservative to boards, walls, &c. : it is composed of 

 lime fresh from the kiln, and clean sharp sand, mixed with hot 

 vater, and laid on hot ; stirring it up so as always to lay on 

 sand with the lime. An excellent plan. At Holkham a brick 

 manufactory, where bricks of all forms are made, and common 

 bricks are cut, five parts in six, through in various directions, so 

 as to give half and quarter bricks, angles, &c. without breaking 

 and waste. This is one of the most complete manufactories in 

 the kingdom. At Bel wy a capital farmerv, laborers' cottages 

 and gardens. Sharp clean sand dashed on" new paint found to 

 answer the end of imitating stone, &c, A. Young did not see 

 a good farm yard in the countv. 



Cottages vavLcii wanted; som'e built of flint- work. 



4. Occupation. 

 Farms large on the dry soils and smaller on the wet ones ; 



2000 acres arable, the largest measuring from 400 to 600. 

 Farmers famous for their imi)rovements, excellency of their 

 management, and the hospitable manner in which they live, 

 and receive their friends and strangers. The farming-mind 

 of the county has undergone two revolutions, one between 1730 

 to 1760, when great improvements were made, and the next 

 about 1790, when drilling bei?an to be introduced. Coke be- 

 gun to promote farming, and the South Down sheet) were in- 

 troduced about that time. The great improvements for seventy 

 years past efTected in consequence of twenty-one years leases. 

 The advantages of leases ab'y advocated by Kent. Coke ad- 

 heres steatUly to this term, while some others are reducing it 

 to seven and nine years. 



5. Implements. 

 For more than half a century these remained stationary ; 



now improvements making ; Norfolk plough has a high pitched 

 beam, wheals near to the share, and is reckoned lighter than 

 most wheel ploughs. 



6. Enclosures. 

 Many since middle of eighteenth centiin'. In planting 



hedges on a loamy soil, the plants being laid i"n, and the bank 

 over them raised to the usual height, the face of it, and also 

 of the ditch for one foot or more below the original surface is 

 plastered over with clayey stuff taken out of the bottom of 

 the ditch, to the thickness of two or three inches, or more 

 about the sets. The advantnge of this plan is, that tliis loamy 

 puddle from the bottom of the ditch, is without the seeds o"f 

 weeds itself, and by its compactness excluding the air from 

 these in the mould below, it prevents them from germinating ; 



the consequence is, hedges planted in this manner require 

 little or no weeding for several years. 



7. Arable Land. 



Plough with two to four horses very shallow ; carefully pre- 

 serve the hard basis formed by the sole of the plough, which 

 is called the pan of the land ; breaking this up is said to let 

 down the riches into the hungry subsoil, &c. Culture of tur- 

 nips erroneously stated by Kent j to have been introduced from 

 Hanover by Townsend, in the rei{^ of Geo. I. ; doubtless 

 has increased since that period. Clover very general, and 

 wheat on the clover ley ; turnips all broad-cast, or if drilled, 

 never on ridgelets, but on the flat surface ; rotations good, such 

 as tumips, barley, clover, wheat, &c. Turnips fed off with 

 sheep, or given to cattle in stalls, or the open yard ; sometimes 

 carted on the sown wheats in February, and eaten off them 

 by sheep or bullocks, the soil bemg very dry and loose ; clover 

 eaten off, or mown for soilmg or hay ; most generally eaten 

 off by ewes and lambs. Wheat dibbled in some places, a prac- 

 tice which originated in this county, and has scarcely been 

 adopted m any other. Carrots not so much cultivated as in 

 Sullblk; a good deal of mustard from March to Wisbcach ; 

 on the rich black lands, four crops of mustard taken in succes- 

 sion, and then wheat ; produce three to four quarters per acre. 

 Hemp and flax cultivated in the spots of ground belonging to 

 houses of industry, and in some other cases, but to no extent. 

 Sainlfoin not much cultivated ; Coke had 400 ac:res. Lucem 

 at a few places ; mangehsrurzel introduced by Sir Mordaimt 

 Martin, who continues to cultivate it. Drilling and dibbling 

 of wheat and pease generally practised on the sandy soils. 

 Coke drills all his com. Arable culture in every department 

 greatly improved since 1790. A paper by Kent, entitled 

 FalUirvins exploded, has been justly condemned by Mar- 

 shal, and other men of more general experience m cul- 

 ture : his notions of shallow plougmng, and continual tillage 

 and cropping without rest, most erroneous, and contreiry to 

 experience. 



8. Grass. 

 Very little of natural turf in the county, transplanting turf 



recently introduced. (5144.) , 



9. Gardens and Orchards 

 Orchards to most of the farm houses; some public ones 



near the large towns Norfolk beetin an excellent apple, and 

 much used for baking dry in ovens, a very particular operation 

 known only to a few bakers. They are repeatedly taken out of 

 the oven, and pressed flat with the hand, and then put in agam. 



10. Woods and Plantations. 



Much planting has taken place on the poorer sands ; Mar- 

 sham, of Stratton, the chief planter, and next Bemey, of 

 Bracon, Coke, and Windham. From 1781 to 1801, Coke 

 planted 718 acres, with upwards of ;two millions of trees and 

 shrubs, of more than fifty kmds. Bevan, of Kiddlesworth, 

 966,000 trees. Marquis Townshend feeds cattle, sheep, and 

 deer with the trimmings of plantations. Sheep are fond of the 

 bark of the Scotch fir and ash. 



11. Improvements. 



A good deal of draining done of late years ; very 'little irri- 

 gation; among the manures are reckoned marl, lime, gyp- 

 sum, oyster shells, sea ouse, sea weeds, pond weeds, burnt 

 earth, sticklebacks, oil cake, rape cake, ashes, soot, malt dust, 

 ploughing in growing buck wheat, yard dung, leaves, burn- 

 ing stubbles, river mud, and town manure. Marling, or clay- 

 ing as it is called, has been much used for an unknown length 

 of time, and is found of great use on the sands ; laid on at all 

 seasons, but chiefly on the clover leys in autumn, and spread 

 in spring, before ploughing for pease or oats; quantity, twenty 

 to eighty loads an acre; duration, twenty to fitly years. Sea 

 ouse, a calcareous mud, forty loads per acre. The sea mud 

 is chiefly part of a stratum of rotten timber on the sea-shore, 

 and which is washed out by the tides; it is perfectly black and 

 rotten, and ten loads manures an acre. Burnt earth is the 

 burnt ant hills of moorylmeadows ;;ashes of cottagers who burn 

 turf, &c. Leaves raked, stubbles bumed, &c. by some. Some 

 jiidicious and successful embankments made on the Ouse, near 

 Lynn, by the late Count Bentick, and continued by his son, 

 the present Governor Bentick. 



^Vl. Live Stock. 



Predominant cattle Scotch, bought in every year from the 

 drovers, for feeding. Norfolk black legged sheep gradually 

 giving way to South Downs; folding on the decline. Poultry 

 good, especially the turkey, owing to the dryness of the soil, 

 and great range of pasture. Decoys, and pigeon houses, 

 formerly numerotis, but now on the decline. Habbits, hares, 

 pheasants, partridges, and rooks abundant. 



13. Political Economy. 



Chas. II. observed, that Norfolk should be cut into roads 

 for all the rest of England; few canals. 



7004. OXFORDSHIRE. An irregular, inland, elevated surface of 450,000 acres, chiefly in aration, 

 and in a very backward state as to agriculture, There are rich grass lands, subjected to the same dairy 

 management as in Buckinghamshire, and some natural wood lands. The principal agriculturist and 

 patriot of the county is Fane, of Wormsley. {Davis's Report, 1794. Arthur Young's O:tfordshire, 1809 

 Marshal's Reviciv, 1813. Smith's Geological Map, 1825.) 



\ Geographical Slate awl Circumstances. j soU in thrc- preat divisions, red land, stonebra:,h, and chil- 



Clivmte, coldand bleak. On the ChilUrn hUls, cold, moiit, tern, or chalky hills ; the basis of all these soils is cilcareous ; 

 zndtoggy. . ' there is also a considerable portion of loamy soil. 



