ni4 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part IV. 



on the lisht lands. Mot of the other plants in cultivation tried 

 by amateurs or others. Woad oullivatetl by two wodd ijrowers, 

 who live in the county ; it requires rich old pasture land, for 

 which the woad grower pays the landlord from M. to 11. per 

 acre per annum, for two or three years, the tarmev being com- 

 pelled to give it up for that term, and to Uke to it again after- 

 wards, at the old rent. The land is ploughed early in spring, 

 well harrowed, and sown broadcast, as thick as grain, by hand- 

 fuls; a great deal of harrowing and dressing is necessary to 

 bring it to fine tilth. When the plants appear, they are hoed, 

 and kept perfectly clean, in a garden style of culture, and the 

 crop appears somewhat like a broadcast crop of spinach ; the 

 leaves are gathered by hand, in baskets, three times in a season, 

 (except a plot sometimes saved for seed) and carted to a mill, 

 where thev are ground to a pulpy mass, by vertical wheels, 

 crossed with iron plates, and moved round by horses: this 

 pounce, or jelly, is then formed into balls, by hand, and dried on 

 hurdles, in a shetl ; these balls are afterwards broken up, and 

 fermented, and finally dried in small lumps, somewhat re- 

 iBembling horse-dung in color and appearance ; it is then packed 

 up in casks for use. , , . 



Onioiit cultivated to great perfection about Pvorthampton ; 

 ViO quarters known to have been sent to Daventry fair at one 



Tobacco cultivated by some farmers for the purpose of dress- 

 ing sheep for the scab. 

 Furze in a few places for oven fuel. 



7. Gross- 

 Supposed to cover 375,000 acres ; 40,000 acres in meadow, 



on the borders of the Nen and other rivers. One farmer says 

 ' a great improvement on all mowing-meadows, incapable of 

 being watered is, to graze, once in two or three years, as bare as 

 possible, and finish with siore sheep ; shut it up at Christmas 

 For mowing ; this is as good as a top dressing." Feeding sheep 

 and cattle the chief application of the grass lands, and next, 

 dairying and breeding horses. 



8. Gardens and Orchards. 



(lood market gardens and orchards about Northampton ; all 

 common articles grown there well, but melons, grapes, peaches. 



and pine apples to be had from London, cheeper than they can 

 be grown jn tiie county. 



9. Woods and Plantations. 



Very extensive ; there are forests, chases, purlieu woods, and 

 woods and plantations being freehold property. Rockingham 

 forest the most considerable, nearly twenty miles in length, 

 and covering 8 or 10,000 acres. Whittlewood eleven miles, and 

 7000 acres, with Saicey forest, making in all '20,000 acres: 

 the chases and other classes are supposed to amount to 20,000 

 ai^es more, making in all 40,000 acres of woodland in the 

 county. Tne forest lands are in general very unprofitably 

 managed; the Crown has a right to the timber, the Duke of 

 Grafton and others to the underwood, and the township to the- 

 pasturage, &c. ; woods which are private and entire property, 

 are better managed. 



10. Live Stock. 



Cattle of the country, the long homed breed, but various ; 

 others introduced for fatting and the dairy. 



Sheep of various breeds ; a good many new Leicesters. 



Horses of the strong black breed, bred for the coach, the 

 army, or large waggons. Blood horses formerly bred, but left 

 olf, as^the least blemish renders them unsaleable. 



Hogs, a breed between the Berkshire and the Tonquin. 



11. Political Economy. 



Bad roads but many handsome bridges ; some canals. M-. 

 nufactures ; shoes for the army and navy and exportation, bone 

 lace, woollen stuffs, astaminies, callimancoes, and everlastings. 

 Several small friendly societies for the promotion of agriculture, 

 consisting chiefly of farmers. The Lamport society is one of 

 those which was founded in 1797, meets at Lamport; it has 

 a fund for purchasing books on agriculture and domestic eco- 

 nomy, and seems to be a description of association very com-, 

 mendable. A great source of improvement would be the break- 

 ing up of the inferior grass lands and the temporary laying down 

 of the continually cropped tillage lands. Donaldson has drawn 

 an able comparison between the management of lands in th 

 Carse of Gowrie in Perthshire and those of Northamptonshire; 

 which shows how very far behind the latter county is in arable 

 culture. 



7019. YORKSHIRE, 3,698,380 acres divided into three Ridings, each of which is as extensive as the 

 generality of other counties. 



7020. WEST RIDING OF YORKSHIRE. 1,.568,000 acres of irregular country, hilly and mountain'- 

 ous towards the north and more level on the east. It contains a great extent of surface well adapted for 

 husbandry, and is the seat of large and extensive manufactures. A survey of this Riding, of singular 

 ability and interest, was made by three Scotch farmers ; and the reprinted copy, as it contains the notes of 

 several gentlemen of the county, will ni future time. be considered as a curious document ; displaying as it 

 does local opinions so different from those considered as liberal and enlightened. {Brotvti's West 

 Biding, 1799. Marshal's Review, 1818. Smith's Geological Map, 1821.) 



1. Geographical State and Circumstances. 



Climate, moderate and healthy, excepting on the low surface 

 near the Ouse ; rain at Sheffield about thirty-three inches in 

 the year. 



Surface irregular, but the middle and eastern parts nearly 

 level '; arable lands generally enclosed with walls and hedges. 



Soil various, from deep strong ley to peat. 



Minerals. Coal, lime, ironstone, lead and some copper, which 

 have been wrought for ages past. 



Rivers. Ouse, Don, Calder, Aire, and Wharfe, all consider- 

 able, besides others of lesser importance. 



2. Property. 



Much dividedf, but some large estates, as those of the Duke of 

 Norfolk, E. Fitzwilliam, Lord Harewood, &c. 



3. Buildings. 



Wentworth House one of the largest and most magnificent 

 in the kingdom; farm-houses bad and badly situated as in 

 most English' counties ; Lord Hawke has ere(;ted a commo- 

 dious and elegant farmery for his own use. Great want of 

 cottages for farm operatives. 



4. Occupation. 



Farms small for one of 400 acres, a dozen under fitly ; oc- 

 cupier of 100 acres styled a great farmer ; tew leases ; the te- 

 Hants on one estate warned off' because they had become me. 

 thodists ; tenantry in general much plagued by attorney stew- 

 ards, who must have business or make it. 



5. Implements, 



Rotheram plough general over the whole district, but one 

 Jiorse carts and other improved implements as well as better 

 ploughs are wanting. 



6. Arable Land. 



Round manufacturing towns, great part of the land held by 

 manufacturers, that by farmers not well managed compared 

 with Scotland, but tolerable compared with other districts of 

 England. No grain will ripen on the eastern moorlands at 

 .an elevation of SOOfeet; but on the calcareous wolds of the 

 E.ist Riding it ripens considerably higher, and at .WO feet 

 better than here at 800. Such is the effect of a calcareous 

 soil. Besides the usual crops, some flax, rape, liquorice, rhu- 

 barb, and weld cultivated. Some excellent remarks on fal- 

 lows. 



7. Grass. 



Great part of the county under old pastures, including some 

 rmeadows, chiefly applied to the feeding of horned cattle; cat- 



tle generally made fat on grass and finished by stall feeding 

 on turnips ; sheep sometimes fed on turnips, by hurdling. 

 Grazing much better understood than araUon. 



8. Gardens and Orchards. 



A particular species of plum grows at Sherborne, and in 

 the neighborhood, called the winesour. It grows well both 

 upon gravel and limestone, is hardy, a good bearer, and an- 

 swers upon any soil ; but does not "bear so well, nor its fla. 

 vor so good on any as on limestone or gravel. On a strong 

 deep land, the trees run too much to wood, and do not bear 

 truit in projiortion. These plums blossom better than anv 

 other sort, and are produced from suckers. The fruit sells 

 from 'lis. per peck, when sound and good, to is. 6rf. when 

 cracked and damaged. They are easily hurt by rain. Plants 

 are to be had from most public nurseries, and in gardens they 

 should be planted on a layer of lime or chalk. 



9. Woods and Plantations. 



Much oak and ash wood grown, and a ready market found 

 at the shipping and manufacturing towns. 



10. Waste Lands. 



Two hundred and sixty-five thousand acres capable of culti- 

 vation. 



11. Improvements. 



Warping the most remarkable ; ably described by Lord Hawke, 

 and Day of Doncaster. 



12. Livestock. 



A great variety of breeds of cattle and sheep in use, but no 

 one generally preferred. Near I,eeds, when milk tastes of 

 turnips a tea cupful of dissolved nitre is put among eight gal- 

 lons of milk which entirely removes the flavor. Horses ge- 

 nerally used in draught, not many bred excepting in the east- 

 em part of the district; sort in use among the farmers a small 

 hardy race. 



13. Political Econmny. 



Many good and many bad roads, various canals. Numerous 

 manufactures of shalloons, callimancoes, flannels, and every 

 branch of woollen goods. At SheflReld every kind of cutlery, 

 since Chaucer's time ; at Rotheram iron-works. These and 

 other manufactures the cause of the wealth of the West Rid- 

 ing. 



14. Means of Improvement. 



Leases, division of commons, enclosing of wastes, better ro- 

 tations, &c. 



7021. NORTH RIDING OF YORKSHIRJl 1,311,187 acres of bold hilly country with some fertile 

 (vales and extensive moor lands chiefly remarkable for breeding horses, and especially the sort known 

 as Cleveland bays. {Tuke's Report, 1799. Marshal's Review, 1808. Smith's Geological Map, 1821.) 



, 1. Geographical State and Circumstances. 



Climate dry like that of other districts bordering on the 

 iGerman Ocean. Cold east winds during the first half of the 

 year. Milder in June, when west winds begin to prevail ; ve- 

 getation not vigorous till June. 



Soil and surface : on the coast clays, and lightish soil on alum 

 strata; a 'loam upon freestone, and in some vallies west of 

 Whitby asleep rich soil : of Cleveland fertile chalk and surface 

 tiilW ; vale of York generally of a rich soil. 



Minerals. Inexhaustible betls of alum in the hills of the 

 eoast and Cleveland ; and the only alum works in the island car- 

 ried on theie; pyrites Ix-ing found in the alum mines sulphur 



was formerly extracted from them, but as it required "a good 

 deal of coal, and i)yrites are equally abundant in the coal at 

 Newcastle, the manufactory of sulphur was transferred to the 

 latter place. Some coal and ironstone in the moors, but not 

 much worked; also copper, lead, freestone, slate, marble, 

 marl, &c. little worked or abandoned. 

 2. Property. 



One third of the Riding pos.?essed by yeomanry ; rent of estate* 

 from .500/. to 18,000/. per annum ; many gentlemen's seaU and 

 the proprietors reside mojt part of the vear on them ; tenuie* 

 mostly freehold. 



