lies 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Pakt IV. 



11. Live Stock. 



No particular breed of cattle, but as feeding is the prevailing 

 practice, farmers buy in whatever breed they think will pay 

 them best. 



Sheep a good deal attended to ; the large polled sheep, or 

 ancient Warwickshire, now generally mixed with other 

 breeds. The first cross of a Leicestershire ram and Warwick- 

 ' Shire ewe produces the best sheep for the butcher. 



Horses, the heavy black Leicestershire breed ; a good 

 many bred, both of cart, coach, riding, and hunting 

 horses. 



Poultry abounds owing to the prevalence of small farnii 

 great quantities sent to Birmingham and London. 



Go we, as pheasants, partridges, and hares, more than com- 

 monly abundant. 



I'i. Political Economy. 



Roads tolerably good, several canals ; innumerable mnrn' 

 factures, especially at Birmingham, for iron, and others of ll;o 

 metal kind, and Coventry for ribbons, 

 lo. Mi^ans oj Improvement. 



Leases ; a more economical mode of laboring ; di-aining ; 

 drilled root and herbage crops, and better rotations. 



7013. LEICESTERSHIRE. 522,240 acresof gently varied surface and fertile soil ; distinguished for its 

 pastures, and for the progress which has been made in the improvement of cattle and sheep. It is tho 

 country of Bakewell, whose name will ever stand at the head of breeding farmers. {Monk's Report, 

 1794. Pitt's Report, 1S09. Marshal's Review, 1813. Smith's Geological Map, 1821.) 



1. Geographical State and Circumstances. 

 Climate mi!d and temperate; no mountains or bogs to pro- 

 duce a cold or moist atmosphere. 



Soil ; no stiff clay or sand, no chalk ; the peat bogs which ex- 

 Rted have been long since drained, and become meadow soil ; 

 clayey loam, sandy loam, and meadow, compose the soil of the 

 county. Dishley farm, so well known, consists of a mild friable 

 loam,'of a good "depth, on a clay or marl bottom. 



Minerals; coal, lime, lead, iron, slate, and freestone; all 

 worked. A mineral spring at Burton Lazars. 



2. Property^ 

 Estates generally large ; that of the Duke of Rutland has 



been much improved, and always managed in the most liberal 

 and benevolent manner. 



3. Bnildvigs. 

 Many very magnificent, PS Belvoir Castle,Donnington Priory, 



&c. Farm-houses not built since the commencement of this 

 century are of very inferior construction ; timber and plaster 

 covered with thalch. In general, the modern enclosed parishes 

 have the worst farm-houses, they being almost always cooped 

 Up in the villages ; in the more ancient enclosures, farm-houses 

 have been erected in the midst of the occupations, and built 

 with better materials. Dishley farm-house is of ancient con- 

 truction, and has probably been built at different times, 

 whence it wants regularity and compactness ; it has, however, 

 taken altogether a style of pastoral simplicity, united with 

 neatness, and exhibils a specimen of that judgment and taste 

 which joins convenience with economy, sd far as it can be at- 

 tained without regular design ; the out-buildings too seem to 

 havebeenput up at separate times, as wanted; the yards and 

 pavements are remarkable for neat cleanliness, and the whole 

 farm business for being conducted with good order and svs- 

 tern. The houses of other principal breeders are comfortable 

 and substantial, and of course fitted up in a style suitable to the 

 taste and situation in life of the occupier. 



Colia/res generally in villages, and formed of mud walls and 

 thatch ; a few good new ones of brick and native slate. 



4. Occupation. 

 Farms of all sizes, a great many from 80 to 100 acres, on 



jirhich the farmers work with their own hands ; near market- 

 towns, many under 100 acres, occupied by tradesmen and ma- 

 nufacturers; general size, 100 to 200 acres; and those of the 

 principal breeders, from 200 to 500 acres. Land chiefly in 

 pasture for sheep, the dairy feeding cattle, breeding horses, 

 and hay for winter use ; dairy farms have also sufficient arable 

 land to" produce straw and turnips for their own use ; the most 

 Inferior soils in aration. The Duke of Rutland has 2000 

 acres in hand, including the park, woods, gardens, &c. At 

 Donnington, Lord Moira had 370 acres, under a Northumbrian 

 bailiff, besides the park of 4,'50 acres. Dishley Farm, near 

 Loughborough, the occupation of the family of the Bakewell's 

 for three generations, and now of Robert Honejbourne, ne- 

 phew to the last Robert Bakewell, who died a bachelor, con- 

 tains between 400 and 500 acres. 



Irrigation is judiciously practised, and the culture of the 

 arable uplands has been long conducted on so correct a sys- 

 tem, that few weeds now come up ; the ;nost troublesome is 

 chickweed. Heift rs of three or four years old draw in the cart 

 or plough, three of them form a team, and work nine hours a 

 day. Farmers in general intelligent. Leases not universal. 



5. Implements. 

 Plough with two wheels, and drawn by three, four, or five 



horses, or cattle in a line walking in the furrow. Thirty years 

 plied to the fore end of the beam," and 

 and 

 prevent its drawing in too deep, the 

 wheels were a sufficient guide, and the plough required no one 

 to hold it, except in places of difficulty ; one person attending 

 was therefore sufficient to drive on the team, turn the plough 

 In and out at the ends, or guide it in particular hard or soft 

 places. Soon after another furrow was added, by slipping 

 an additional beam to the offside of the former, one somewhat 

 lengthened, with foot share and shelboard ; the same number 

 of wheels, viz. one on each side, guiding the two furrows. 

 Among (he uncommon implements may be included, a rack 

 and manger for four colts on wheels, to be drawn from one 



nuraca, ui caiiic iii dime waiKiii^ iii liiciuijuw. x iiij ij \ 



ago, wheels were first applied to the fore end of the beam," 

 Jt was found that by pitching the p!ou>;hs a little deeper, 

 letting the wheels so as to prevent its drawing in too deep. 



pasture to another. It is sauare in the plan, and therefore each 

 colt has a side to itself, and cannot kick or bite at the others ; 

 a break for shoeing oxen, a fastening for ewes, to lessen 

 the fatigue of the ram during copulation, and also several 

 pjoughs, rakfs, &c. the invention of Hanford &Co.atHathern, 

 near Leices*er. 



6. Arabic Land. 



Many farms have none. Drilling com crops principally intro- 

 duced; but not for turnips, even at Dishley; thought to lose 

 ground ; cabbages and rape a good deal cultivated on the soils 

 too strong for turnips. 



1.. Grass. 

 , Excelltnt meadows on the rivers and ril'.s ; fertilized by in- 

 undations;: upland pastures sometimes manurtd. Stilton 

 cheese made in most villages aboui Melton Moubray. On 

 the Trent, considerable patches of reed, which pay as well as 

 the btst meadow land. 



8. Gardens and Orchards. 



(iardens much wanted to cottages; orchards rather neglect- 

 fed, though the soil is in many places well adapted for them. 



9. Woods and Plantations. 



Few, excepting about gentlemen's seats, and in the hedge- 

 rows. Willows, as pollards, grown on Dishley and other farms, 

 to supply stuff for hurdles, rails, and gates. 



10. Improvements. 



E'.kington was a good deal employed by the proprietors. Ir- 

 rigation more extensively practised in this county, than in most 

 others. 



11. Livestock. 

 Cattle, the long homed breed. AVTiat was the particular 



breed of cattle in I^eicestershire before the middle of tl e last 

 century, about which time Bakewell began his exertions, it is 

 difficult to determine; perhaps there was not any distinct 

 breed, with particular specific characters, whereby they mitht 

 be distinguiiihed ; although there were always great numbers 

 bred, yet the produce was never equal to the supply of tl e 

 county ; there alwavs was, and still is an influx from lrelar.(i, 

 Wales, Scotland, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Herefordsbiit, 

 Northumberland, and Lancashire; the latter of which weio 

 most probably the stock from which Bakewell began his 

 breed. His first best cows, it is believed, were artfully obtaintd 

 from Webster, of Canley, in Warwickshire ; and his famous 

 bull. Twopenny, was bred from one of these cows, or from one 

 procured from Phillips, of Garrington, and a bull from Ncrth- 

 umberland. From these beginnings, with great judgment 

 and attention, in a short time he reared some beautiful cattle ; 

 they were long and fine in the horn, had small heads, clean 

 throats, strait backs, wide quarters, and were light in their 

 bellies and offals ; they were gentle and quiet in their tempers ; 

 they giew fat with a small proportion of food, but gave less 

 milk than some other breeds. Some years ago Bakewell put 

 three new milched cows in three separate stalls, a Holder, 

 ness, a Scotch, and one of his own breed ; the Holderneys ato. 

 most food, and gave much the greatest quantity of milk ; the 

 Scotch ate less food, and gave less milk, but produced most 

 butter; his own cow ate least food, gave the least milk, ard 

 made the least butter, but laid on the most flesh : hence it will 

 follow, that the Dishley cattle are most adapted for the graier, 

 and the produce of beef. No man, perhaps, ever made more 

 comparisons between the diflierent breeds of cattle, than Bake- 

 well, and no one that was able to tell so much, has told us so 

 little about them. Many capital herds of cattle in the county, 

 and a number of dairies, from which great quantities of cheese 

 is sent to market. 



Sheep, the present stock consists of three varieties, the old 

 and new Leicester, and the forest sheep. The old breed, which 

 is spread over Northamptonshire, Warwick, and Lincolnshire, 

 are an improvement on the ancient stock of the common fields. 

 The new breed Bakewell produced by breeding from selected 

 sheep from his neighbors' flocks, or those of the (jibb^trs. A 

 ram society was formed by Bakewell and others, and still 

 exists, the object of which was a monopoly of ram-letting. The 

 late Bakewell bound himself, and his successor, H ones bourne, 

 binds himself, not to engage nor show his rams to any person, 

 till the members of the society have seen them and aie sup- 

 plied, and not to let a ram to any person within fifty miles of 

 Leicester, for a less sum than fifty guineas, for which, and 

 other privileges, the society pay a large annual sum; and 

 Honeybourne, as well as every other member of the society, 

 confine themselves not to sell, nor to let their ewes at any 

 price, nor to show their rams at any public fair, nor at any 

 other place than their own houses, and that only at stated 

 times, from the 8th of June, to the 8ih of July, and again 

 fiom the 8th of September, till the end of the season; with 

 several other regulations of a similar tendency. 



Ram-letting alone has produced to Bakewell oOOOA in one 

 year. The greatest prices were paid about 1789 ; since that 

 time they have declined; still, about 1807, fiom sixty to 100 

 guineas has been given for the use of a ram for one season. 

 Much curious information on this subject will be found in the 

 report. 

 Folding is not practised. 



Fatting is practised as usual with grass, and in winter and 

 spring with artificial food. Bakewell frequently fattened shtep 

 in stalls ; in three days they were reconciled to their confine- 

 ment, and began to feed. '^ Further than this," the reT)crfr' 

 informant, Bakewell's successor, " knows not, or is not inclined ^ 

 to communicate." a 



The forest sheep are confined to' Charrwood ; they are grey- J| 



faced, and partially horned, but now almost extinct. 'i 



Horses have been bred in Leicestershire from time im- 

 memorial, and the breed considered superior. Bakewell 

 wtnt through Holland and Flanders and purchased some 

 Friisland mares, which excelled in those points wherein he 

 thought his own horses defective, fiom wbicb, ith peat labor, 

 (xpense, and judgment, le produced some capital horses, snd 

 in particular "his famous horse Gec; the noblest, and most com- 

 plete and beautiful creature of the kind tl at had beert seen in 

 Europe. How far his elegant points were adapted for the 

 labor (hat horses of this sort are principally designed to per- 

 form, is a question, perhap , undetermined ; be this as it may, 

 bevond all controversy hewas strong and handvome, and com- 

 manded (headmiraion of all vho saw (hem; lor a time he was 

 (he first subject of conversation, and almost the worder tf -ha 

 day; he w"as taken to Tattersali's, and shown there to the 

 nobilty and gentry, with great approbation ; and Bakewell had 

 the honor of showing him personally to his Majesty : he is 

 said to have been very quiet and docile, and Bakewell, in de- 



