Book I. 



AGRICULTURE OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



1125 



4s in saintfoin, and the>est of the arable is cultivated In the ro- 

 tation of, one, wheat; two, rye, winter barley, or winter 

 vetches, to be ted with sheep in the spring, and the whole fol- 

 lowed by turiiiiw, rai>e, &c. ; three, barley or oats ; and four 

 and five, artificial grasses, to be followed by wheat as before. 



Upon the thin chalks and shallow flinty loams, wheat is gene- 

 rally sown on the back of a two years' clover ley, but even on 

 those thin soils, a great deal is sow"n after turnips, rape, &c. fed 

 off with sheep early enough to sow it in the sameautiunn, and 

 in most instances a good crop is produced of a fine sample. On 

 the better sorts of chalky and gravelly soils, the same practice 

 prevails, except upon the ley -ground, which continues in grass 

 but one year instead of two ; the wheat is taken after the first 

 year's ley, and is supposed to answer better than it would in the 



second year, u\)on the latter description of soils. Old saintfoin 

 leys broken up without paring and burning. Hemp and flax 

 a good deal cultivated. 



7. Grass. 



300,000 acres, or about three-fifths of the county; 6000 

 acres of meadow in the chalky district irrigated. Application 

 of the meadows, fatting cattle, and of tlie uplands the dairy. 



8. Gardens and Orchards. 



Both are frequent appendages to farm-houses and cottages ; 

 someof the cottage gardens are small enclosures taken from 

 the sides of the highways. The goosefoot (Chenopodium bowis 

 henricus) cultivated by a few persons here, as m Lincolnshire 

 and elsewhere, and calculations made by Batchelor, to shew 

 what would be the expenses and profits of an acre for the Lon- 

 don market. The plant is greatly inferior to spinach, but 

 might be used as a substitute tor it in spring, as it is a peren- 

 nial, and very early in leaf. Sea cale, which grows on the 

 shores near Burton, Is now generally introduced into the gar- 

 dens of farmers. 



Orchards to the extent of 10,000 acres ; application cider ; 

 in making which ho])s are sometimes added to make it keep ; 

 proportion one pound to a hogshead. Twenty bushels of apples 

 will make a hogshead of cider. 



9. Woods and Plantations. 



Timber scarce, and chiefly to be found in parks and hedge- 

 rows. Many young plantations lately made on^ the heath 

 lands. 



10. Improvements. 



Irrigation carried to considerable extent and great perfection, 

 and one of the best books on the subject is by Boswell, of 

 Piddletown. A dry meadow of good quality is worth forty 

 shillings ; watered, sixty-five shillings per acre ; produce of hay 

 two loads i>er acre. "The streams in Dorset are in general 

 shallow, and have a considerable fall ; the meadows are 

 nHrrow,'and the water is supplied with comparative regularity, 

 in consequence of its having to filter through immense masses 

 of chalk previous to its exit at the springs : and hence the pro- 

 cess of irrigation is much facilitated. 



The sheep of Dorsetshire are well known as supplymg the 

 metropolis with house-lamb at a very early season. Parkinson 

 considers the Dorset ewe as the best homed ewe in the kingdom, 

 those;of Somerset excepted, and they are so nearly alike, that few 

 people, excepting the natives of the two counties, would know 

 the difference, in the Isle of Portland there is a small breed, 

 which some contend is the true breed of the county. 

 Lowman, of Portland, observes, it is the practice there to fold 

 these dwarfish animals from Candlemas to iUartintide, puttmg 

 them in late at night, and letting them out early in the morn- 

 ing. "The mutton is deemed the best in England, and the wool 

 as good as the South Do\vti kind. Some of them have been 

 purchased by sheep-breeders, with a view to obtain a cross be- 

 tween these and the Merinos. Both ewes and wethers are 

 kept, and generally till they are five years old; sometimes they 



remain till a greater age, but tt Is not thought a profiuble 

 method. Such a^ are fatted are put into a common, .^t the 

 northern part of the island, which is pretty good land, and 

 remain there from the I'ith of August to the 5th of November 

 on which day Portland sheep-fair is held. All the sheep of the 

 island are kept pretty generally upon the commons from No- 

 vember the Silst to Candlemas. The Portland mutton is sold 

 by the quarter in general at ten shillings and sixi>ence. It is 

 never weighed, but would come to one shilling a pound when 

 common mutton is only seven-pence: it seldom weighs more 

 than ten pounds a quarter. Several flocks of pure Merinos, 

 Down Merinos, and other breeds. 



General managemeiU oj sheep. The lambs which are bred for 

 the regular supply of the flock, are dropped at Christmas, or 

 soon afterwards, and the couples are kept in the best ewe-leazes, 

 &c. on grass, hay, and turnips, if necessary ; and such as have 

 watered meadows, depasture their sheep there, on the early grass , 

 till old May-day, when the lambs are weaned, and the sheep 

 go to fold; but sometimes the two latter circumstances take 

 place as early as Lady-day. The ewes are folded constantly, 

 and kept on the Downs, on artificial grasses and other pastures, 

 till near the ensuing Christmas, at which time they have 

 another crop of lambs, the rams having been put to the flock 

 about the end of July. 



There is, probably, no part of England where the practice 

 of sheep-folding is more admired, or more earnestly pursued, 

 than in the county of Dorset. Fifteen dozen of hurdles, with a 

 like number of stakes and withes to confine them together, 

 will iqjjdose a statute acre of ground, and will contain 1200 or 

 13(X> sheep very commodiously. The hurdles are moved every 

 morning, consequently the same number of sheep will manure 

 an acre of land daily. The real value of the fold there is no 

 means of ascertaining; it is, undoubtedly, very beneflciai 

 to the arable land, but it has reduced the I)owns to a state of 

 poverty. 



Ewes are generally kept till they are four years and a half 

 old, when they are sold to the dealers. A singular custom 

 prevails of coloring them with ochre, for which no other 

 reason is given than that of being able to distinguish them from 

 the Somerset sheep. 



Asies were formerly kept by some farmers, but are now given 

 up, having been found destructive to hedges, &c. " It ap- 

 peared that six asses would plough as much land of any kind 

 in a given time as three horses, and four asses were sufficient to 

 plough broken land It is believed that two asses will perform 

 as much work as one horse, and they do it more conveniently 

 in the hilly part of the county, eis they carry their lading in 

 panniers, where it would be difficult to use wheel carriages. 



Geese kept on the com pastures in Purbeck, from an idea 

 that they promote the health of the cattle. 



Bees kept in various-places ; does not answer to feed them ; 

 the only way to render them profitable is, after the honey- 

 season to destroy all hives under twenty pounds weight. 

 11. Political Economy. 



Roads of flint, and in general good : an iron railway, of three 

 miles and a half, for conveying potters' clay from Norden to a 

 place opposite Poole, where it is shipped for Liverpool. No 

 canals. Manufactures of flax and hemp at Bridport and Bea- 

 minster ; upwards of 2000 people employed in making sail-cloth, 

 cordage, sacking, tarpaulin, &c. ; flannel at Shaftsbury, and 

 woollens at Lyme Regis; twisting and making up law silk into 

 skeins at Sherbounie and other places ; shirt buttons exten- 

 sively, at Shaftsbury, Blandford, and the surrounding villages ; 

 the buttons made of" wire and thread ; many thousands of chil- 

 dren in this manufacture : wicker baskets, with a small hole at 

 top, called lobster pots, at various places on the coast, and a 

 variety of other articles. Many very uncommon provincial 

 terms used in this county. 



7034. SOMERSETSHIRE. About one million of acres, chiefly of meadow and pasture land, hilly and 

 mounuinous in some places, find with marshes and bogs in others, but on the whole, though far behind in 

 artificial culture, celebrated for its natural fertility. The climate is various, in general cold and 

 boisterous on the elevated parts, but almost without a winter near the sea. The county is divided into the 

 north-east, middle, and south-west districts, by its very able reporter, J.Billingsley, Esq. of Ashwick Grove. 

 (Billingsley's General View, 1797. Marshal's Review, 1817.) 



7035. North-east District. 



Surface very irregular, intermixed with lofty hills and rich 

 fertile plains: climate various; soil chiefly clay, and in part 

 peat; application chiefly pasturage; several thousands of acres 

 overflown by the tide in the river Yeo; 40(X) acres protected by 

 a wall of stone and lime, elevated ten feet above the level of 

 the land within, but high tides frequently break over it and 

 make breaches. 



Minerals. Lead and calamine in the Mendip hills, but little 

 worked, for want of a proper level to carry off the water. 

 Coal abounds, and is worked for the supply of Bath, Wiltshire, 

 and Somersetshire: from 800 to 1000 tons raised weekly. 



Property. Many large proprietors from iOOOl. to 60001. per 

 annum, but the greater part in the possession of respectable 

 yeomanry, from 501. to 5001. a year. 



Builditijfs. There are many splendid gentlemen's seats, 

 or namnted with extensive planUUons, in this district, and the 

 farm-houses and cottages are for tlie most part commodioits 

 and comfortable; but on all the dairy farms, a shameful inat- 

 tention prevails in respect to outhouses and sheds for their 

 stock to retire to in the winter months. Cattle are almost uni- 

 versally served with their provender in the field ; and many 

 a dairy farmer, with twenty cows, scarcely makes, in the 

 whole winter, a quantity of dung sufficient to manure one acre 

 of land. 



Occupation. Farms seldom exceed 200/- a year ; some of the 

 dairy farms are so small as not to exceed GO/, or 70/. per year ; 

 and many instances can be produced of such little farmers 

 bringing up a leirge family in a very respectable way- In such 

 instances, it is gener.illy found that the wife undertakes the 

 whole management of the cows, and the husband goes to daily 

 labor. 



Implements. Plough with a foot or wheel ; spade with the 

 blade curved in its breadth, to prevent adhesion of soil : it is 

 much narrower and longer than those used in other counUes, 

 eighteen inches by six inches. 



Arable land but in small proportion, and Uttle attended to. 

 Teazles and woad grown for the clothiers ; potatoes cultivated 

 to a very considerable extent. The Reporter has known thirty - 



4 



two successive crops of potatoes. from the same field, and the 

 produce as good at the latter part of the term as at the begin- 

 ning. This will puzzle the theorist, with his peculiar sub- 

 stances of nutrition. A sack of potatoes is equal to 100 weight 

 of hay. 



Grass, the predominating surface. " On the rich marsh land 

 near the Bristol Channel, the grazing system prevails. In the 

 vicinity of Bristol and Bath, the scythe is in constant use ; and 

 at a greater distance nothing is scarcely seen but the mUking 

 pail : on the stone-brash, and freestone grit soil, saintfoin takes 

 the lead: next to samtfoin, rye grass, marl grass, and white 

 Dutch clover are in deserved reiiute, when the land is intended 

 to remain some years in grass ; but when it is intended to 

 be ploughed again in the course of a year or two, broad clover 

 is preferred to all others. 



Hay Tea, (837.) much in use, by which means it is consi- 

 dered as much nourishment is obtained, Jis if the hay were 

 eaten, while after boiling, the culms may be dried and used as 

 litter ! 



Market Gardens for the supply of Bristol and Bath. A cler- 

 gyman has eight or ten acres of nursery ground, the labor of 

 which amounts to 25/. per acre. 



Orchards abound throughout the whole district ; the favorite 

 apple, both as a table and cider fruit, is the court of wick pip- 

 pin, a seedlin" from the golden pippin. 



Woods and Plantations not numerous. 



Live Stock. Cattle mostly short homed ; the long homed 

 breed of North Wiltshire have been tried, but the customary 

 breed preferred. Both cheese and butter made. 



Hoiuls pretty good ; some canals ; woollen manufacture, ex- 

 tensive, and that of knit worsted stockings considerable. 



7036. Middle District. 



Between 4 and 5(K),0U0 acres of varied surface and soil, and 

 mild climate ; including a great extent of marsh and fen land, 

 great part of which has been drained and embanked. Half this 

 district occupied by the owners. Grass the chief product, 

 farms from 40/. to 600/. per annum, partly grazed with heifers, 

 but chiefly by cows for the dairy : the cows let out to dairymen, 

 as in Dorsetshire. 



C3 



