Book I. 



AGRICULTURE OF WILTSHIRE. 



1123 



nazed, andlproductive ; they are chiefly In' the neighborhood 

 of Winchester, on the Ifchen j but tliere are iustanceii on most 

 of the other riverg and itreains. 



8. Gardens and Orchards. 



Kxcellent marltet eardens |near Gosport and Portsmouth j 

 Portsea island noted tor its brocoli ; white-washed mud walls, 

 with copings of thatch used as fences, and for wall fruit in some i 

 cases ; and fruit walls only half a brick thick, and waving at the j 

 rate of one foot in twenty in use. In other c;is>s angular walls 

 are in use, the angles being right angles, and the sides ten feet 

 each. The advantage in both cases, is the saving of bricks; 

 but it is evident they cannot be carried very hig:h, nor, sub- 

 ject as they are to the driving and drawing of nails, can they 

 be of great duration. (See Encycltrpcedia of Gardening, 1567-) 



Orchards in various places, and cider made both in the coun- 

 ty, and in the Isle of Wight. 



9. Woods and Plantations. ' 

 Extensive beechwoods on the chalk district, those of Ditch- i 



am grove very tine j elm scarce in the county, but abundant in ! 

 Strathfieldsay Park (now the Duke of Wellington's). Oak 

 abundant in the New Forest district, and many young planta- 

 tions there, and throughout t'le coimty. Cobbett raised a great 

 many American trees' of various speci'i^ at Botley. There are 

 several considerable forests, viz. the New Forest, Alice Holt, 

 Woolmer, and Bere, 



The New Forest is situated on the south side of Hampshire ; 

 it was formerly bounded on the east by Southampton river, and 

 on the south by the British Channel, being near thirty miles 

 in length, and ninety in circumference ; but since the disatfbr- 

 estations by Henry the Third, and Edward the First, itsliound- 

 aries are much reduced, and now only extend from (iadshill, 

 on the north west, to the sea, on the south-east about twenty 

 miles ; and from Hardley, on the east, to Kingwood, on the 

 west, about fifteen miles"; containing within those limits abont 

 9'i,'5&5 acres, the whole of which does not now belong to the 

 crown, as several manors and freehold estates, to the amount 

 of 24,797 acres, are private property ; about 625 acres are 

 copyhold, belonging to His Majesty's manor of Lyndhurst ; 

 1004 acres are leasehold, held under the crown ; 902 acres are 

 encroachments; 1193 acres are held by the master- keepers 

 and groom keepers, attached to their respective lodges ; and 

 the remaining 63,844 acres, are the woods and waste lands of 

 the forest. The other forests are of much less extent and in- 

 terest. 



10. Improvements. 

 I Good examples of draining by tapping, were exhibited by 

 Elkington, on Cadland Park estate : tnestrata Iving at a small 

 angle witli the horizon, enabled the principles of what is called 

 Elkington's mode of draining, to be carried completely into 

 effect. In the eastern part of the Isle of Wight, are' 



tracts of marshy ground^ the largest of which, Brading^aven, 

 containing about 900 acres, was granted by James 1. to one 

 Gibbs, a groom of the bed-chamber. The owners of the 



adjoining lands contested this grant, which the king was very 

 earnest in supporting. After a verdict obtained in the Court of 

 Exchequer against the gentlemen of the island, Gibbs sold his 

 share for 2000/. to Sir Bois Thelwall, a page of the king's bed- 



chamber, who admitted the ftimoa( Sir Hugh Middleton to a 

 share. They employed a number of Dutchmen to enclose and 

 recover the haven from the sea. The first taklngof it in cost 

 4000/, and 1000/. more was expended in building a dwelling 

 house, bam, water-mill, trenching, quicksetting, and other 

 necessary works ; so that, including the original purchase, the 

 total exjienditure amounted to 7000/. But after all, the value 

 of the ground did not answer the expectations of the underta- 

 kers ; tor though that part of it adjoining Brading proved to- 

 lerably good, nearly one half of it was found to be a light 

 running sand ; nevertheless, an incontcstible evidence ap- 

 peared, by the discovery of a well, cased with stone, near the 

 middle ot the haven, that it had formerly been good groimd. 

 Sir Hugh IWiddleton tried.a variety of experiments on the land 

 which had been taken in, before he sold his share ; sowing it 

 with wheat, barley, oats, cabbage, and finally with rapeseed, 

 which last was alone successful: but the greatest discou- 

 ragement was, that the sea brought up so much ouze, weeds, 

 and sand, which choked up the passage for the discharge of 

 the fresh water. At length, in a wet season, when the inner 

 part of the haven was full of fresh water, and a high spring 

 tide, the waters met under the bank, and made a breach. 

 Thus ended this expensive project; and though Sir John Og- 

 lander, who lived in the neighborhood, confesses himself a 

 friend to the undertaking, which, besides its principal object, 

 tended to render that part of the country more healthy, he 

 declares it as his opinion, that the scheme can never te re- 

 sumed Is any profitable purjxise. 



11. Live Stock. 



No exclusive breed of cattle. The Sussex, Suffolk, Leicester, 

 Hereford, Devon, &c. are indiscriminately met with. Several 

 ox teams. 



Sheep. In the Woodland district the heath sheep, old Hamp- 

 shire, or Wilts breeds, but most of the improved breeds also to 

 be met with. 



The Horses used in teams generally large, heavy, inactivo 

 animals. Small horses bred in vast numbers upon the heaths 

 and forests, and which have not improperly acquired the name 

 of heath croppers. Their ordinary height is about twelve 

 hands. They propagate indiscriminately upon these wastes, 

 where they seek their living throughout the year, and at four 

 years old may generally be purchased at about"five pounds. 



The native hog of this county is a coarse, raw boned, flat sided 

 animal, agreeing in no respect with the idea entertained of it 

 in other parts of the kingdom. The great number fed for a few 

 weeks in the close of autumn,upon the acorns and mast which the 

 forests and other woodlands produce, in the county, and the ex- 

 cellent mode of curing hog-meat practised by tbe housekeepers, 

 have contributed in a far greater degree to establish that supe- 

 riority ascribed to Hampshire bacon, than any inherent excel- 

 lence in its native breed of hogs. Very, few, however, of the 

 genuine native hog are to be met with, the common stock 

 being either the native Berkshire breed, or a considerable pre- 

 dominance of that blood in the native swine of the county. 



12. Political Economy. 



Roads in general good, especially in the New Forest. Several 

 canals, and various manufactures and public works at |Port- 

 mouth and other places. 



7030. WILTSHIRE. 878,000 acres of varied surface, partly chalky downs, and partly rich vale land : 

 and both a corn and grass county, It produces excellent cheese and butter, fat cattle, pigs, and 

 store sheep. The agricultural report of this county was drawn up by T. Davis, steward to the Mar- 

 quess of Bath, at Longlent, a man of great experience as a land steward, surveyor, and farmer, and univer- 

 sally respected. He divides the county into two .districts, the south-east, and north-west, a very judi- 

 cious plan for giving correct agricultural information. {Davis's Wiltshire, 1794. MarshoTs Review, 1809.) 



, tise, a very short and cheap way of attaining this firmness in 

 I the land. They rafter the land (as they caUit), that is, they 

 plough half of the land, and turn the grass siile of the plough- 

 ed furrow on the land fhat is left unnloughed. Thev do this 

 as soon as they can spare the feed of the summer-field, and 

 leave it in that state till near seed time, when they harrow it 



7031. South Wiltshire. 



Wiltshire downs contain about ,500,000 acres of hilly sur- 

 face, mostly unenclosed and in commbn pasture ; the atm os- 

 phere cold and sharp, with a chalky soil, seldom varied by 

 patches of loam, sand, or other earths. There is scarcely 

 a river or brook in this district that is not applied in some way 

 or other to the purposes of irrigation. 



1. Property. 



Near large towns propertj- is generally subdivided when sold : 

 in this district, when any is sold it is generally bought up by 

 such as are considerableproprietors, hence estates generally 

 large. Shape of the manors shews that many of them' were the 

 property of one lord ; each borders on, or contains a rivulet for 

 water and meadow, and a hill for wood, or where these were 

 wanting, they were supplied by a grant of those articles from 

 other property. Proprietors generally resident on tlieir es- 

 tates. 



2. Buildings. 



Faim-houses generally crowded together in villages, for con- 

 venience of water . Some of late years erected centrical to their 

 farms, by the Earl of Pembroke, and other proprietors ; wells 

 and ponds an imiiortant article in these erections. 



3. Occupation. 



Farms of two kinds; those in severalty or not subject to 

 rights of common, are from 150/. to 500/., and one or 

 two at 1000/. a vear ; customarv tenements, subject to rights 

 of common, are "from 25/. to 46/. or 50/. per annum. There 

 are extensive sheep commons and cow commons,' to which 

 the occupiers of both descriptions of lands have a right to turn 

 in stock according to certain fixed and customary regulations. 

 Leases seven, fourteen, or twenty-one years. 



4. Implements. 



A heavy two wheel and one wheel plough in use ; the latter 

 sometimes with a foot instead of a wheel. 



5. Arable Land. 



An old error, that of over pulverizing the uplands by too fre- 

 quent ploughings, by which the wheats were thrown out dur- 

 ing winter, or if they stood the winter, the March winds blew 

 away the earth from their roots, and " hanging by one leg," 

 and thus not receiving any assistance from the coronal root. 



^ 



the plants are weak in straw, and produce^ small thin ears. 

 Many modes have been introduced to prevent this evil, by 

 giving a sufficient texture and firmness to the land previous to 

 a wheat crop. The best farmers have made a point of getting 

 their lands dean ploughed by midsummer, and treading it as 

 firm as possible with the sheep-fold a long time before sowing ; 

 while the slovenly fanners have uivented, and generally prac- 



4 



down and plough it for sowing. This rafter is usually ploughed 

 across the ridges, or what is better, diagonally; the latter 

 mode being less subject to drive the land up in heaps before 

 the plough". The land thus raftered is sometimes ploughed 

 twice, but more frequently only once, previous to sowing ; and 

 after it is sown they drag it two, three, or four times, and har- 

 row it four, five, or six times. A very heavy kind of drag ii 

 used, and as Wiltshire Down farmers are very cautious of 

 ploughing their land too much, they make much use of these 

 drags instead of ploughing, and frequently let in their seed- 

 wheat with them. This practice having been found to answer, 

 has been gradually improved upon. The down lands of this 

 district will not bear fallowing, especially in hot dry weather|; 

 they are too thin and light already, and requite rest. Two 

 years' rest for wheat is equal to the best coat of dung. Dung 

 mav give the quantity, but rest must give the quality. 



The course of crops' was formerly fallow, wheat, barley, oats ; 

 but now, even on the common fields, is wheat, barley, clover, 

 mowed one year, and fed two years, till it is necessary to plough 

 for wheat. Turnips, swedes, and rape grown for winter food 

 for;sheep, though less necessary than in districts less amply pro- 

 vided with water meadows. Error that of sowing too much 

 com. 



Gnr(/m near Devizes, Lavington, Warminster, Westburv, &c 

 Many families subsist by this kind of husbandry, occupying 

 from two to five acres each ag garden ground, 'fhe produce 

 supplies the adjacent towns in the district, and F'rome and 

 Bath, in the county of Somerset, with cabbage-plants, pease, 

 beans, carrots, tumips, and vast quantities of potatoes. 



Orchards in some places, and cider made ; but as the distrirt 

 is famous for its barley and ale, the predilection for this beverage 

 renders the want of cider little felt. 



Woods not numerous, but a great spirit for forming planta.- 

 tions; and some excellent remarks on the subject in the 

 Report. ' 



Irrigation introduced into this district the -fend of the seven- 

 teenth, or the beginning of the eighteenth centurv. Many of the 

 most valuable and best formed meatlows, particularly those 

 in the Wylev Bourne, were made under the directions of 

 one Farmer Baverstock, of Stockton, between the years 1700 

 and 1705. 



Between 15,000 and 20,000 acres watered ; its great value in 

 ' April between " bay and grass, by which the farmer it i 



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