122 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part IV. 



Ing whether the taU ftedlne of their milch cows might not be 

 continued during the whole year, but he found the general 

 opinion to be against this practice ; though it did not appear 

 that any experiments, sufficient for the decision of the point, 

 had hitherto been made. It was suggested to him, how- 

 ever, that it would be an improvement upon the present ma- 

 nagement, to let the cows stand in their houses during the 

 heat of the day in summer ; where, by giving them a few cab- 

 bages or tares, the milk would continue forming, and the cat- 

 tle be defended from the gad-fly, which, by tormenting them 

 in the fields, frequently injures both the quantity and quality 

 of the milk. 



Time of calving March and April. At calving-time the cow- 

 man, or the master, are frequently up two or three timps in the 

 course of a night, to see whether any thing is amiss. The racks 

 and mangers are every day well cleaned out, while due atten- 

 tion is paid to the appetites of the different beasts, and the 



quantity of food is governed accordingly. After this is done, 

 the master himself, generally, goes round ftom stall to stall 

 lust before bed-time, and adds to or diminishes the quantity of 



Ibdder as occasion may require 



In making butter the whole of the milk and cream Is churned 

 together. Cheese made from the whey pressed from the curd 

 used in making cheese. 



Cheese-making has remained stationary in Cheshire for many 

 years ; best size of cheeses sixty pounds. Cows milked during 

 summer at six o'clock, morning and evening. " The evening's 

 milk (of suppose twenty cows) having stood all the night in 

 the coolers and brass pans, the cheese-maker, in summer, 

 about six o'clock in the morning, carefully skims off tlie cream 

 from the whole of it, observing first to take off all the froth 

 and bubbles, which may amount to about a pint : this not be- 

 ing thought proper to be put into the cheese, goes to the cream 

 mug to be churned for butter, and the rest )f the cream is put 

 into a brass pan. While the dairy-woman is thus employed, 

 the servants are milking the cows, 'having previously lighted a 

 fire under the furnace, which is half full of water. As soon as 

 the night's milk is skimmed, it is all carried into the cheese 

 tub, except about three-fourths of a brass pan full (three or four 

 gallons), which is immediately placed in the furnace of hot 

 water in the pan, and is made scalding hot ; the half of the 

 milk thus heated in the pan is poured also into the cheese tub, 

 and tfie other half is poured to the cream, which, as before ob- 

 served, was skimmed into another brass pan. By this means 

 all the cream is liquified and dissolved, so as apparently to form 

 one homogeneous or uniform fluid, and in that state it is 

 poured into the cheese tub. But before this is done, several 

 bowls or vessels, full of new milk, will generally have been 

 poured into the cheese tub, or perhaps the whole morning's 

 milk. Care is taken to skim off all the air bubbles which may 

 have formed, in pouring the new milk into the cheese tub. 

 The night and morning's milk, and melted cream, being thus 

 all put into the cheese tub, it is then ready to receive the ren- 



net and coloring, or, in the terms of the art, to be set together. 

 The rennet and coloring being put into the tub, the whole is 

 well stirred together, a wooden cover is put over the tub, and 

 over that is thrown a linen cloth* The usual time of coming is 



one hour and a half, during wlJch time it is frequently to be 

 examined : if the cream rises to the surface before the coming 

 takes ]ilace, as it often does, the whole must be stirred together 

 so as to mix again the milk and cream, and this as often as it 

 rises, until the coagulation commences. A few smart strokes 

 on different sides of the tub, with the cheese ladder, &c. will 

 forward the coagulation, if it is found to be too long in 

 forming. 



The I nrd is in the next place broke by the knife and hands, and 

 then left lialf an hour to subside ; then it is gently pressed, the 

 curd broken by the hand, and the whey laded oiit of the tub, 

 as it drains from the curd. Afterwards, the curd is broken in 

 a'brass pan and salted, and next put into the cheese vat, and 

 pressed with a sixty pound weight, till all the whey is removed. 

 It is then again broke, washed with warm whey, and finally 

 put in the'press under a weight or power of about 14 cwt. 

 After being forty -eight hours in the press, it is put in the salt- 

 ing tub, where it remains three days covered with salt ; it is 

 then taken out and placed on the salting benches, where it is 

 turned once a dav ; it is then washed in warm water with a 

 brush, and wiped dry with a cloth ; in two hours it is smeared 

 over with whey butter, and then put in the warmest part of 

 the cheese room. In the cheese room it is well rubbed, to 

 take off the sweat or fermentation which takes place in cheese 

 for a certain time after it is made, and turned daily for seven 

 days, and smeared with whey butter ; afterwards it is turned 

 daily, and rubbed three times a week in summer, and twice in 

 winter. 



The cheese rooms are commonly placed over the cow-houses ; 

 and this is done with a view to obtain that moderate and ne- 

 cessary degree of temperature so essential to the ripening of 

 cheese, to which the heat arising from the cattle underneath, 

 is supposed very much to contribute. On dairy farms, one wo- 

 man servant is kept to every ten cowsj these women are em- 

 ployed in winter in carding, spinning, and other housewifery 

 business; but in milking, the women, both night and morn- 

 ing, during summer, where large dairies are kept, are assisted 

 by all the other servants, men and boys, except the man who 

 drives the team. 



Sheep little attended to in Cheshire. 



Horses brought from Derbyshire and Leicestershire. 



Hugs, a. mixture of long and short eared breeds. 



Poultry of the common kind abundant in most farms for 

 their eggs. Geese kept by the cottagers till midsummer or later, 

 and then sold to the farmers, who fatten them on their stub- 

 bles. 



Bees to be found at many of the farm-houses, and at some of 

 the cottages. 



12. Political Economy. 



Roads bad; various canals, 'an extensive commerce of coal 

 and salt, and manufactures of silk, woollen, linen, and cotton. 

 An experimental farm established at Waverham, near North- 

 wich, by some gentlemen and farmers of the neighborhood, 

 but it w*as soon found so expensive and losing a concern as to 

 be abandoned. Those on the plan suggested by Bailey, (7024.) 

 seem the most likely to be effective and permanent. 



Tillage difficult and eyjiensive in the chalk district, light 

 and eisy in the vale ccf Avon. Pease a good deal cultivateid on 

 the chalks, especially the Marlborough grev or partridge ; the 

 cbarlton and uearl ; in warm situations they are drilled and 

 often sown before Christmas, or in January. " A considerable 

 jmvstery still seems to hang over certain properties of these pease, 

 with regard to their iKiiling well for soup or porridge; jjood 



boilers bang sometimes sown upon fields which have never 

 been known to refuse yielding a produce possessing a similar 

 quality, but that effect afterwards ceasing, and a hard indis- 



799 



7029. HAMPSHIRR A maritime county, which includes also the Isle of Wight: the latter contains 

 94,000 acres, and the continental part of the county, 968,150 acres. The climate of this country being re- 

 markably mild, and the soil in many places being calcareous, and consequently warm, very early arable crops 

 are produced in some places, and pease grown better than in many districts. The culture of the county, 

 however, has little to recommend it, either in its tillage or pasturage. Its woods are extensive. {A. and 

 W. Driver's General View, 1794. Vancouver's General View, 1808. Warner's Isle of Wight, 1794. Mar- 

 shal's Review, 1817.) 



1. Geographical State and Circumstances. 

 Climate generally mild. 

 Soil in the central parts, a strong flinty calcareous loam ; in 



other parts generally gravelly, or sandy, and calcareous. "The 

 oil of the Isle of Wight is pjutly a clayey and calcareous loam, 

 and in part lighter. 



Minerals: none of any consequence ; potters' clay, sand, and 

 building-stone in different places. 



H'ater scarce in dry seasons, in the chalk districts, where it 

 is preserved in tanks, and drawn up from wells 300 or 400 feet 

 deep. In some parishes after a long dry autumn, there has 

 been more strong beer than water. A good deal of fishing, on 

 the coast ; of eels after floods in the smaller streams ; and some 

 fish ponds on Bagshot Heath. 



2. Property. 



Largest estates on the chalky districts ; largest SOOO^. per an- 

 num. Great bulk of the lands held and cultivated by yeoman- 

 ry : tenures, copyhold, and leasehold, from the superior lords or 

 freeholders. 



3. Buildings. 

 ' Houses of proprietors numerous: farm-houses mostly of great 

 antiquity ; those of the larger kind were formerly grange or 

 manor-houses; out -buildings numerous, and generally ruin- 

 ous; cottages often of mud ( provin. cot) walls, but better on the 

 whole than in some other counties. Some fanciful rustic struc- 

 tures as shelters or temporary lodges for cattle, in the forest 

 district, (fig. 799.) 



4. Occupation. 

 Farms various, rather small. 



1 5. Implements. 



Hampshire plough, an exti-aordinarily bulky, clumsy struc- 

 ture; the Suffolk plough is used in the southern parts of the 

 ceunty, and in the Isle of Wight. The i)atent Hampshire 

 waggon is formed by uniting two carts corresponding with the 

 fore and hind parts of a waggon, bv bolting them together. 

 The thill of the hind cart passes under the bed, and rests on the 

 pillow of the fore-cart. The union is simple, yet so complete, 

 as to render this waggon as strong, if not stronger, than the 

 common kind. 



6. Arable Land. 



soluble pea has been produced that continued for several suc- 

 cessive periods ; whilst on the other hand, land that had never 

 been known, or even suspected of being able to communicate a 

 boiling quality to its pease, would unexpectedly give to the 

 produce of a hard, and almost impenetrable pea, all the pro- 

 perties of being excellent boilers. Through all the cedar-co- 

 lored sand, and pravelly loams in Devonshire, good boilers are 

 stated to be uniformly produced, and in continued succession. 

 1"he same kind of soil, and in every respect under similar cir- 

 cumstances in the Isle of Wight, will only occasionally, and by 

 accident as it were, produce good boiling pease. Some opini- 

 ons seem to refer this effect to a peculiarity in the seasons ; but 

 this cannot stand against a well known truth, that good boilers 

 are produced every season. 



Saintfoin cultivated with success on the chalky soils, and very 

 productive. Hops on the borders of Surrey. A vineyard was 

 planted at Undercliff, in the Isle of Wight, by the late Sir 

 Richard Worsley, in 1792, and an Anjou vine-dresser brought 

 over to attend it ; the extent was about two and a half acres, 

 and a light wine was made ; but in 1808, when M. Vancouver 

 called to see it, he found the vines had been grubbed up, and 

 the ground changed to a lawn of turf. 



7. Grass Lands. 



Th count} famous for water ^meadows, which are well ma. 



