1126 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part IV. 



Aralik Land, flax and hemp extensively cultivated, and also 

 turnips. 



Orcltards numerous and very productive; soil particularly 

 suitable ; plantations few. 



Live Stock. Small cows, well fed, preferred for the dairv, and 

 the object chiefly cheese ; that of Cheddar much admired ; the 

 others in general sold in London as double Gloucester. A dairy 

 maid can manage the milk of twentv cows. 



Roads excellent, especially from Wells to Bridijewater ; ex- 

 tensive woollen manufactures, many of hemp and flax, and 

 some of gloves. 



7037. South West District. 



Rough mountainous hills, and rich fertile slopes and plains ; 

 farms rather less than in the last district, but the husbandry 

 much the same ; more land in tillage ; moimtains uncultivated, 

 and pasture with sheep and young bullocks ; in the vicinity of 

 these hills, the principal com crop is oats. 



Fences. The beech hedges around IJulverton, Duiister, &c. 

 are not only beautiful to the eye, and excellent fences and 

 shelter, but are a source of annual profit to the proprietors. The 

 hanks on which they are planted, are six or seven feet high. 



and between four and five feet wide at the top ; the mouldering 

 of thesideti is fre<]uently prevented by a dry stone wall, four 

 feet high. There is no ditch ; and the hedge consists of three 

 rows of beech,'plantd on the top of the bank, at about one 

 foot distance. Their growth is very rapid, and they seem to 

 defy the destructive qualities of the sea l3ree/,es, so fatal to the 

 white-thorn, and most other plants ; when at maturity, the 

 middle row is cut to the ground, and the outside rows plashed. 

 The quantity of fuel supplied by these hedges is very consider- 

 able ; and the only objection that can be made to them is, that 

 the earth used in the construction of the banks is so consider- 

 able a quantity, that a large portion of the field is robbed of its 

 vegetable matter, and rendered for some years unproductive. 



Some Norfolk farmers introduced on the Barnard estate, 

 and rhubarb cultivated to great perfection by Ball, at Wil- 

 liton, near AVatchet. Many orcliards, and excellent cider 

 made ; not much wood, but elms attain to a large size in the 

 hedjjes. 



Live Stock. North Devon cattle, and Dorset sheep used round 

 Taunton Dean ; oxen worked chiefly in yokes. Manufactures 

 at Taunton on the decline. A salinon and herring fisherv at 

 Torlack, Mmehead, and AVatchet. 



70.38. DEVONSHIRE. 1, S9.5,.'::09 acres of strongly marked hilly surface, including the vale of Exeter, 

 " the garden of the west," the Forest of Dartmoor, a barren Maste, and Korth, West, South, and East 

 Devonshire, each with distinct features. The county is celebrated for its breed of cattle, its dairy, and its 

 orchards, and of late years for extensive improvements undertaken in Dartmoor, where is also the im- 

 mense depftt for 10,0{X) prisoners of war. ifi^. 800.) {TyrwhitVs Tracts on the Improvements at Bart- 

 inoor, 1819. Frascr's General View, 1794. Vancouver's Vieiv, 1807. Marshal's Review, 1817.) 



800 



J. Geographical State and Circumstances. 



Climate in North Devon less mild than in South Devon, hut 

 still myrtles are used as garden hedges ; in South Devon the cli- 

 mate is supposed more mild and salubrious than in any other 

 part of Ei^land. 



Soil in great variety, but in general calcareous. 



itineralt. Some iron and copper worked, also freestone, lime- 

 stone, and marble, &c. 

 Si. Property. 



Much divided, only a few large estates ; formerly letting for 

 lives much in use. " It has frequently happened, that in letling 

 an estate, the landlord agreed to discharge titheS and all paro- 

 chial payments. About the years 1800 and 1801, the rent of 

 several estates in this'county was absolutely insufficient to meet 

 such disbursements, and consequently all the estates socircum- 

 ktanced, brought tlieir proprietors in debt, 

 .3 Buildings. 



Houses of proprietors too generally going to ruin from non- 

 residence. " We defy ingenui'y to plan and place f,irm-l ouses 

 worse than they are." " (jartlen-walls, farm houses, bams, 

 stables, lime kilns, village fences, and cottai;es, are all built with 

 mud, and left without rough cast, or wliite wash, to conceal 



the native color of the loam." 



4. Occupation. 



Farms of all sizes from 10/. 

 to 600/. a year 



.5. Implements. 

 ' Plough of the swing kind, 

 with a wooden mould board. 

 Scarifiers, called tormentors. 

 Two sorts of grubbing mat- 

 tocks are in use (./t^.S01a,A.), 

 one called the hoe mattock, 

 (fl), and the other a two 1 ill 

 or double-bitted mattock (b). 

 Paring shovels (c) are very 

 well constructed. Com stacks 

 in harvest secured from the 

 sudden and heavy thunder 

 showers, to which this coun- 

 try is liable, by canvass cover- 

 ings, like those used in Mid- 

 dlesex for covering hay ritks. 



6. Arable Land. 



Much less than the grass 

 land; not much to be leam- 



bUi 



ed from its culture; artificial herbage not generally sown, and 

 rotations bad. 



7. Grass Land. 



In the low tracts of good quality ; application, breeding and 

 the dairy; butttr good, ciieese mdiileitnt, and generally con- 

 sumed in the county. 



8. Orchards, Woods, and Plantations. 



Very abundant in most ]>nrts of the county, and excellent 

 cider made in the Herefordshire manner. Fruit trees rather 

 neglected as otherwise; generally pasture beneath ; often in 

 the hedgerows. 



The Forest of Dartmoor belongs to the Prince of Wales, and 

 is parcel of the Duchy of (Jomwail : extensive imjrovtments have 

 lately been proposed, and in part carried hito execution, under 

 the direction of Sir .1. Tyrwhitt, the steward of the Duchy. 

 Extensive salt marshes on some parts of the coast. 



9. Improvements. 



Drainhig and irrigation not much practisMl. The Rev. IM. 

 Fronde, of DarUngton parsonage, comimmicated to \'ancouver, 

 a mode of empiying tlie water from a j)ond without the ne- 

 cesity of attending to it personally when full. It is mon; matter 

 of curiosity than ingenuity or use. The water when the nond 

 is overflowing, flows by a gutter into a basin, suspended be- 

 yond the head, which wlien full, liy means of a lever, raists 

 a plug at the bottom of the pond. After a time, the box being 

 leaky, it becomes empty, and when the pond is nearly empty, 

 the plug re-drops in its place. If the plug were ])laced nearer 

 the surface of the water, it would in general cases be more 

 useful and less likely to lose the fish. 



10. Live Stock. 



The North Devon cattle well known for their su)ierior adapt- 

 ation, both for feeding and draught. For the uses of the dairy or 

 for milk, it is a breed by no means held in general estimation, 

 as their aptitude to look well (without being fleshv), is derived 

 from the peculiar nature of the animal, which disposes its se- 

 cretions in the accumulation of fat, rather than in the produc- 

 tion of milk. For the purposes of labor, this breed can no 

 where be excelled for docility, activity, or hardihood, in proof 

 of which no stronger circumstance can be adduced, than that 

 it is a common day's work, on fallow land, for four steers to 

 plough two acres with a double-furrow plough, and that a 

 general use is thus made of them, and for most of the other 

 purposes of draught in the county where they >vere originally 

 found; and in others to which they have been since trans- 

 planted. 



The rules generally pursued in breeding and raising this va- 



