[ '64 ] 



promiscuously all over the land, and the crop is seldom weeded ; 

 oats five bushels, barley three bushels and a half. 



Of late a few farmers have drilled their beans in rows twenty 

 inches asunder, horse hoeing them ; others thirteen or fourteen 

 inches asunder, hand hoeing the alley, at the expence of four shil- 

 lings per acre ; in both these ways, they have deposited nearly 

 the same quantity of seed, as in the promiscuous planting, especi- 

 ally in the closer rows. 



The produce has been uniformly superior to those planted in the 

 old method, and the land kept cleaner for ensuing crops. 



The common fields in this district are so few, and the uninclosed 

 wastes (a portion of Blackdown and Pickeridge hill excepted) so 

 insignificant, that little improvement can be made in that wav. 

 There arc a few low common meadows, where frequently the hay 

 crop (provincially t( the tonsure") belongs to one man, and the 

 after grass to another, by which means such lands are totally neg- 

 lected, being neither drained, nor manured. 



The waste lands on that part of Blackdown which lie within 

 this county, are supposed to exceed a thousand acres ; they are so 

 situated on the declivity of the hill, that floats might easily be 

 made to convey the water, issuing from the springs, over the 

 land. 



And if the water should not be found to fertilize, it would not 

 be difficult, or expensive, to convert these floats into drains, and 

 thereby render the ground more dry, and healthy. 



The occupiers of estates contiguous to these hills, stock them 

 with young cattle in the summer months, but the distant tenants 

 reap little or no benefit. 



The price of labor throughout the whole district is nearly the 

 same, (viz.) Men through the year one shilling per day, and beer ; 

 women for weeding and common work, six-pence per day ; and 

 for mattocking the wheat and hay- making, eight-pence per day; 

 but contract labor is gaining ground daily* and in this way mei\ 

 will earn four-pence or six-pence per day more than at day woik. 



Excepting some peat turf on Blackdown, there is scarce any 

 fenny land to be met with. On soils any way inclined to a weep- 

 ing surface, great attentioa is paid to draining, which is done by 



digging 

 4 



