364 History of the English Landed Interest. 



The general yield of all six crops from tlie various courses 

 tlien in fashion averaged per acre as follows : — 



A crop and a fallow 



2 I) 15 



O 11 11 



3 qrs. 6 bus. 



O 11 ^ 11 



Grarstang seems to have been the only district in the North 

 where a system of four crops and a fallow was practised. 

 Young found farms miserably understocked. It was not un- 

 usual for a beginner to start to cultivate a farm worth £100 a 

 year in rent with only £400 of capital. Horses were just tak- 

 ing the place of oxen, much to Young's regret, who clung to 

 the old method by which farmers kept three sets of plough 

 beasts, viz., the young cattle coming into work, the teams 

 actually employed, and the fattening beasts that had served 

 their three years at the yoke. Unfortunately many farmers, 

 tempted by the high prices prevailing in the market for lean 

 cattle, took to selling the first named set, and then when their 

 system broke down decided in favour of the horse as a beast of 

 burden. Bakewell, on his light loamy farms, used cows for 

 draught purposes, deeming tliem faster than oxen ; and Arthur 

 Young, who saw them at work, corroborated this view.^ Sir 

 Edward Littleton, of Teddesley Park, near Lichfield, wrote, 

 " that for all home business oxen are more advantageous than 

 horses in every respect, if drawn single and with an inverted 

 collar as horses are." For light work he used the faster step- 

 ping spayed heifer^ and for the hardest work of all he used 

 bulh. Martins had been tried, but were found to be inferior 

 ^ Eastern Tour, 1771. A. Young. 



