1128 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part IV. 



parlor, but called (provtacialK) the higher side, a cellar ; and 

 dairy-room, but these latter are frequently under a lean-to roof ; 

 the rooms very low, not ceiled, and two bed-chambers over ; the 

 floors of the chambers are of oak plank ; the ground-floor, earth, 

 lime-ash, or flag-stone. 



The farm-offices built of the same materials, consisting of a 

 bam, cow and ox sheds and hog-sties, stand in confusion about 

 the dwelling. The intervening and circumjacent ground is 

 called the farmer's town-place ; for as to that essential appen- 

 dage, a regular farm-yard, it is a convenience not often met 

 with in any part of the county. 



Some good new farmeries erected centrically on newly inclosed 

 )ands. One for forty -six acres hqs a very neat elevation, (jig. 802.) 



find the plan {^fig. 803.) contains a feeding place, into which the 

 turnips are carried (the cart being backed into it), and from 

 whence the sheep and oxen are fed (a); pl^ce for a yoke of oxen(o), 

 either for soiling or winter- 

 feeding : the oxen are tied to 

 Cts(cc); there are troughs 

 turnips (d) ; cribs, or 

 racks for hay or straw (e) ; 

 lean-to for store sheep (/); 

 lean-to, in which half a 

 Bcore sheep are kept to fat- 

 ten, the number being com- 

 pleted again cis soon as any 

 are sold (^) ; fodder house, 

 used as a bam (A) ; open shed for tools (/); hanging doors 

 with bolt. in side, and through which the fodder is handed to 

 supply the cattle, and is thus kept always dry (k) ; door and 

 staircase leading up to the wool-chamber (/). The stairs rise 

 quick so as to be quite out of the way of the ox feeding in 

 that side of the house. 



Cottages. " 1 had occasion often, in my dreary walks, during 

 vay survey, to take shelter in some of these miserable dwellmgs, 

 ?nd found the poor inhabitants busy in placing their bowls, 

 crocks, and pans, to catch the waters pouring in at the roof. 

 Jfowever, the meanest cottage generally has that great source 

 pf comfort, a garden, attached to it." Some very cpmfortable 



plans of cottages by Capt, Penson, of Ethy, are' described by th 

 surveyor. 



803 



B4I a 



4, Occupation. 



Farms from three or four to three or four hundred acres, 

 mostly from thirty to fifty pounds a year. Leases on rack- 

 rented farms generally from fourteen to twenty-one years. 



5. Implements. 



No country affords a greater variety of wheel and other car- 

 riages, The harvest waggon (Jig. 804.) has a lade before and 



behind, and is open in the middle; it carries about 30 a 

 sheaves of com. When drawn by hoises shafts are applied , 

 when by oxen, a pole. An arch of boards over the hind wheeb 

 prevents the com from bearing on them. 



The wain is another light useful carriage for carrying corn 

 and hay ; it consists of a light open long body, bcme upon two 

 wheels ; a railed arch over the wheels prevents the load from 

 bearing upon them ; it will carry from 200 to 250 sheaves, 

 which are secured by ropes, it having no sides or lades. 



A sledge for com, hay, or faggots (,fig. 805 a.) ; slide butt (6). j 

 quarry butt for earth or stones (c) ; dung-pots or dung-panniers 

 (rf) for dung or stones ; and panniers with hooks for faggct 

 wood and sheafed com (e) are also in use. 



805 



806 



-=%n 



The Cornish plough is a small swing plough with a straight 

 piece of wood as a mould board. 



Barn boards for threshing on are four or five planks laid 

 across beams, but about one third of an inch asunder, so that 

 the com as it is threshed may fall through and not be bruised. 

 In some places, wheat is separated from the straw by beating it 

 on a barrel or inclined plane, usually bv women. Fences gene- 

 rally made of stone, or raised banks of stone, slate, and earth 

 sometimes planked. 



6. Arable Land. 



The pilez, or naked oat, cultivated on worn-out ground ; its 

 straw very fine, and reckoned nearly as good as hay. A quan- 

 tity of potatoes exported yearly ; but not enough of wheat 

 grown for home consumption. 



7. Grass. 



Chief Iv near towns and villages on sheltered slopes, and the 

 uncultivated lands known as moors, downs, crofts, and wastes ; 

 some meadows watered. 



8. Gardens. 



Common to cottages and farms, and better attended to than 

 in most counties ; orchards also attached to many farms. 



9. Woods and Plantations not abundant. '^ 



10. Improvements. 



Draining practised to a considerable extent, and one or Iwo 

 examples of embanking. 



The maritime situation of Cornwall presents the farmer with 

 three valuable manures, fish, sea-sand, sea-weed. In some 

 years the farmers who live in the vicinity of fishing towns, 

 have an opportunity of buying the bruised and small pilchards ; 

 which heing deemed unfit for market are rejected, and called 

 " cott'; " four cartloads of twelve bushels, are considered as 

 the proper quantity for an acre. The rjsual mode of manage- 

 ment is to bury the cofT in a pile of earth, deep enough to se- 

 cure it from dors and hogs, adding to the pile a sufficient 

 quantity of sand" well mixing and turning all together, after 

 having lain some months. Without this practice, the fisli 

 would not decay sufficiently for perhaps a year or two. The 

 fish are sometimes used alone; they are then spread thinly 

 over the ground before the plough, and turned under furrow- 

 One pilchard cut up small, will amply dress one square foot rf 

 ground. 



The old salt which has been used to cure the pilchard, and 

 judged to be no longer fit for that purpose, is advantageously 

 applied for a barley or a turnip crop ; twenty to thirty bushels 

 per acre. It is commonly hand sown, in the manner of com j 

 and it should remain on the land five or six days before the 

 seed is sown. It is best adapted to light lands, particularly 

 furze crops. Twenty bushels per acre have been strewed over- 

 grass lands, and over a wheat crop, in the month of March, 

 with evident advantaf;e. 



Another article of manure obtained from this useful fish 

 is the liquor which drains from it while under the process 

 of curing, consisting of blood, brine, and some oil which 

 escapes, and which is caught in ])its ; the diligent farmer cart* 

 this away in casks, for the purpose of pouring over and mixing 

 with his\)iles of earth and sand, which it greatly enriches. 



11. Live Stock. 



Devonshire cattle prevail, but it is only among the more en- 

 lightened and spirited breeders that the genuine North Devon 

 are to be met with. Cows are kept in winter in sheds open Uh 



