Book I. 



AGRICULTURE OF JERSEY. 



129 



the south ; one of which for seven cows and a fatting calf (.^^. 

 807. ) described by the surveyor, contains cribs for hay or straw 

 In winter, and lucem, vetches, &c. in summer (a) ; troughs for 

 turnips, potatoes, cabbages, &c. (6) ; beds or platforms for the 

 cows to stand and lie on (c) ; gutters sunk two or three inches 

 to receive the dung ((/) ; head-wav and feeding place (e) ; dark 

 place for fatting a calf (/) ; the division outside (g) for a cow 

 that has, or is nejir having, a calf. She is not tied up. 



807 



The cows are tied to posts by means of a strong chain and 

 rope, which by means of a ring runs on a long staple. 



Oxen very generally worked both in plough and cart ; ihod 

 in brakes, and yoked in the bow. 



Sheep a mixed breed ; Cornish breed lost among crosses. 



Hones a small hardy active breed, well adapted to the hilly 

 nature of the county. 



Curnhh hos always white, long-sided, razor-backed animal ; 

 crossing by the Devon, Suffolk, and Leicester breed, has taken 

 oft' length and sharpness, and added breadth and dejjth ; a 

 mixture of Chinese and Suffolk is another variety. 



12. Political Economy. 



Public roads tolerably good ; lanes bad. Some traveller* 

 who met Pargan the reporter, hoped he would notice with re- 

 prehension, the straw-traps that the farmers lay in some of the 

 cross-roads, and which, concealing the deep ruts, endanger 

 their horses, gigs, and their own necks. 



Mannjactures few; some of woollen, carpets, and paper. 

 The three great staple commodities for export, are tin, fish, 

 and copper, the moor-stone, China stone for porcelain, barley, 

 oats, potatoes, and some wheat. 



7040. The islands of JERSEY, GUERNSEY, ALDERNEY, and SARK, which lie in the Bay of St, 

 Michel, and torm the remnant of the ancient Duchy of Normandy, though naturally belonging to the con- 

 tinent of France, yet, for nine centuries have been subject to the British Government. The agriculture 

 of all of them is nearly the same ; but we shall follow the Reporter to the Board of Agriculture in consi- 

 dering first, that ot Jersey, and next Guernsey. These islands are chiefly remarkable for their breed of 

 cattle, their parsneps, and the degree of perfection to which many plants arrive in the open air, which are 

 kept in England un ler glass. {Quayle's General View, Sfc. of the Nonnan Islands, 1812 ) 



7041. Jersey. 39,580 acres of warm and rather moist climate, diversified soil, and features ; the soil is for 

 the most part light, on<granite or schistus, and there is some peat and marsh. No calcareous soil or rocks : 

 granite and gneiss quarries worked; and granite pillars of fifteen feet in length extracted. Water 

 abounds ; and beFief is stiU.entertained in the efficacy of the diving rod for discovering springs 



1. Property. 



Minutely divided, and mostly In the hands of a resident 

 yeomanry. Some singular laws and customs as to tenures, as 

 for example, the retrai't ligrwger, and reirait seigneurial oufuedal ; 

 also the legitimation of children not bom in wedlock, by the 

 marriage of their parents, as in Scotland, and most other 

 countries of Europe excepting England. 



2. Buildings. 



Those of all classes substantially built of stone, sometimes 

 roHgh cast, neatly lined in imitation of squared stone work. 

 Farm-houses generally covered with that<;h or pantiles. Cot- 

 tages generally of stone, with a vine in front. 



3. Occupation. 



Farms small, and fields diminutive ; farmers frugal, and 

 their wives good managers and industrious. 



4. Implefnents. 



Plough with wheels, resembling that of Hampshire; some- 

 times tfrawn by two bullocks, and six or eight horses ; a sort 

 of large plough used for ploughing deep, for parsneps, and 

 held in partnership by several fanners; instances of tlus plough 

 being drawn by six oxen, and sixteen horses, (p. 64.) 



5. Enclosing. 



Fields very small and irregularly shaped, and the fences of 

 high earthen mounds, often twelve feet wide at least, and six 

 feet high, crowned with a hedge, or timber tree* and pollards. 



6. Arable Land. 



Soil deep, and deep ploughing generally practised, but no 

 Improvement in it for ages; no naked fallows. The spelt 

 wheat (Triticum spelta), here called tremais fntmeiitum tri- 

 mestre, here enters into rotation ; it is sown in February, pro- 

 duces short stitt" straw, is difhcult to thresh, but never lodges. 



Parsneps are grown by every faitner, and either by the spade 

 culture alone, bv the plough and spade, or by the small and great 

 plough ; any soil in good heart and tilth suits them, but pe- 

 culiarly, a deep loam ; and in the same spot, generally are 

 raised beans, pease, cabbage, and occasionally potatoes. 



When the ploughing or digging is completed, the field is 

 once harrowed ; straight lines are then drawn across, by 

 means of a gardener's rake, usually from north to south; wo- 

 men then proceed with dibbles, and set the beans in rows, at 

 a distance of four inches, or five inches Irom bean to bean ; in 

 four, three, and sometimes in two ranks of beans, leaving in- 

 tervals of between live and six feet, between each of the sown 

 rows. In the use of the dibble and in dropfjing the beans, the 

 women have acquired considerable dexterity. In many in- 

 stances, they are followed by children, who drop into each 

 hole made by the dibble, after the bean, three or four pease; 

 the parsnep seed is then sown, at the rate of one-third to one- 

 sixth of a bushel to the acre. 



The parsnep, not usually relished elsewhere as an article of 

 human fiiod, is here consumed by all classes of people ; it is 

 eaten with meat, with milk, and with butter ; but not, as is 

 the common mode of using it as human food in England, with 

 salt fish ; or as in Ireland, together with potatoes. ^ ^ ^ 



The next most valuable application of this root is hog-feed- 

 ing ; at first it is given to the animal in a raw state, afterwards 

 boiled or steamed, and finally, for a week or a fortnight with 

 bean and oatmeal. A hog, treated m this way, is sufficiently 

 fatted for killing in about six weeks. Its flesh i^i held superior 

 to that arising from any other tbod, and does not waste in boil- 



liullocks are also fatted with parsneps, in about three months ; 

 their flesh is here considered of superior flavor to any other 

 beef, and commands, on that account, an additional half- 

 penny in the pound on the price. To milch-cows they are also 

 usu.iily given; on this diet the cream assumes a yellow colour ; 

 by the accounts here given, it appears, in proportion to the milk, 

 to be more abundant, than when the animal is kept on any 

 other food whatever. When the cow receives at the rate of 

 thirtv-five pounds per day with hav, seven quarts, ale measure, 

 of the milk produce seventeen ounc.s of butter. It is generally 

 allowed, that the flavor of the butler is superior to any other 

 produced in winter. 



(icese are sometimes shut up with the liogs, to fatten on 

 parsneps, which they will eat raw. The root is also given 

 boiled; and for a week before killing, they are fed with oats 

 or barley only. Horses eat this root greedily ; but in this 



island it is never given them, as it is alleged, that when on 

 this food, their eyes are injured. About MorlaLs, horses are 

 not only ordinarily fed on iparsneps, but they are considered 

 as the biest of all food, superior even to oats. 



Lucem a good deal cultivated, and found productive. 



Hups to a moderate extent ; the reporter could not find that 

 the; tencrium scordonia was employed as a substitute, as rela- 

 ted in some botanical works. A species of cyperus (most likely 

 patex aranaria), used for twisting into halters and other rope*. 



7. Grass Lands. 



Of very limited extent, hut meadows very productive. 



8. Gardens and Orchards. 



Very productive, and in general carefully attended to. Chau. 

 montelle pears brought to great perfection, and with grapes, 

 bulbs of the (Juemsey lily, parsnep seed, and some flower 

 seeds, sent to the London fruiterers and seedsmen. 



Orchards generally attached to all farms. Jersey cider in 

 much esteem, and a principal article of export. Most of the 

 farm-houses have large arched doors, made wide on purpose 

 for the passage of cider casks. A valuable work on the subject 

 of ciderby the Rev. F. Le Conteur, entitled Apercu sur la cut. 

 ture des Pommea, Jersey, 1806. The pomeril, lamm^, noir-toit, 

 and gros-amer, the cider-apples at present in vogue. 



9. Woods and Plantations. 



Very limited extent, and the waste ground a little more so ; 

 only about 300 acres of rocky summits of liills; these might b 

 planted. 



10. Improvejnents. 



No calcareous manures found on any of the Norman islands. 

 Sea shells tried on clay with great advantage ; and sea weeds 

 (vraic whence vrack). Irrigation in a simple manner, practised 

 in the narrow vallies from time immemorial. Sea encroaching 

 in some places, and jetties and embankments proposed, but no- 

 thing done. 



11. Live stock. 



Aldemey cattle well known. Though there can be no 

 doubt that the breed was derived from the contiguous conti- 

 nental coast, yet it is not known that in any part of it at pre- 

 sent, the same breed is preserved in equal puritv. Next, per- 

 haps, to the possession ottn-aic, the treasure highest in a Jersey- 

 man's estimation, is his cow. She seems to be a constant ob- 

 ject of his thoughts and attention : that attention she certainly 

 deserves, but she absorbs it too exclusively ; his horse he treats 

 unkindly ; his sheep most barbarously ; but on this idolized 

 cow, his affections are rivetted as firmly as those of an eastern 

 Bramin on the same animal. It is "true that in summer 

 she must submit to be staked to the ground ; but five and six 

 times in the day her station is shifted. In winter she is warmly 

 housed by night, and fed with the jirwious parsnep. When 

 she calves she is regaled with toast, and with the nectar of the 

 island, cider, to which powdered ginger is added. Could she 

 be prevailed upon to participate in all her master's tastes, there 

 is no doubt but that he would willingly bestow on' her the 

 quintescence of vraic itself. 



To guard the purity of her genealogy, and to prevent others 

 from being conveyed to England, under the semblance of 

 Jersey cows, he has invoked the interference of the insular le- 

 gislature. On the Sth of August, 1789, an act of the States 

 passed, by which the importation into Jersey of cow, heifer, 

 calf, or bull, is prohibited under the penalty of '200 livres, with 

 the forfeiture of boat and tackle. A fine of fifty livres is also 

 imposed on every sailor on bcnrd, who does not inform of the 

 attempt. The o.f'ending animal is to be slaughtered, without 

 mercy on the spot, and its flesh distributed among the poor. 

 The same act of the States directs, that when cattle of the 

 enumerated descriptions are exported, a certificate of their be- 

 ing natives of the island is to accompany them. On the 

 vessel's return, another certificate is re<iuired, that the same 

 identical number, and no more, have been landed. 



There is indeed, at present, little d;mgfr of the occurrence 

 of that evil, which the Jersey-man so much deprecates, for 

 he will not sjieedily become a convert to any heretical opinions 

 which he may happen to hear fVom an Englishman ; for 

 in this, as in every thing else, it may be observed, that 

 the rooted opinions of a people are more powerful than any 

 law. 



The oxen are distinguished ^y rising to a stature and balk 



