[ A 5° ] 



is so nearly like those operations on flax, that I shall not detain my 

 reader any longer on this article, and shall only add, that in many- 

 cases the crop is more profitable than that of flax. 



Between Yeovil, and Taunton, including the parishes of Mar- 

 rock) Puckington, Barrington, Kingsbury Episcopi, Lambrook, 

 South Petherton, Ilminster, Hinton St. George, and the adjacent 

 places, lies a tract of strong, loamy land, from sixteen to thirty 

 inches deep, on a substratum of clay ; a more pleasant country can 

 rarely be found. The proprietaries are large, and the estates are 

 mostly held by lives, under the Lords of the fee : there are how- 

 ever many freeholders who possess from one hundred pounds to 

 seven hundred pounds per snnum. 



The farms are from forty pounds to six hundred pounds per 

 annum, and are composed partly of rich grazing, and dairy land 

 worth from thirty to thirty-five shillings per acre; partly orchards, 

 worth from two pounds to three pounds ten shillings per acre. 

 Sheep walks worth from fifteen to twenty-five shillings per acre ; 

 and the arable from twenty to twenty-five shillings per acre. 



The rich pasture land is partly grazed with heifers, and partly 

 devoted to the dairy. Few farmers milk their own cows, but they 

 are let to a class of people, scarcely known in other counties, called 

 dairy men. A herd of a good breed will let for six pounds ten 

 shillings per cow ; a certain portion of land is devoted to their 

 summer keeping, and a sufficient quantity of hay is provided by the 

 fanner, for their winter sustenance. 



This practice of letting dairies, must have originated, either 

 from pride, or vidoletue on the part of the farmer's household, and 

 cught in my opinion, to be checked by the landlord. 



When the female part of a farmer's family is unemployed (and 

 without a dairy, that must be the case throughout great part of the 

 year) dissipation, folly, and extravagance take the lead, and domes- 

 tic care, and industry are entirely forgotten. Were I a gentleman 

 of fortune, I would never let an estate to a farmer, whose family 

 was too proud, or too indolent, to undertake the management of the 

 different departments thereof. 



The sheep of this district are an improved sort of the Dorset, and 

 many considerable ewe flocks are kept, to the amount of four to six 



hundred j 



