1 111 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



IV. 



77'4 HEREFORDSHIRE A lurftrce of 600,000 acres, studded with lulls, hillocks, and minor swell* 

 of various height* and dimensions ; almotl even where of ■ rich soil, devoted exclusively to agriculture, 

 .„„i highly productive in corn, cattle, Trim, cider, hops, and tM.ii.or. The most distinguished cultivator 



in the count) i- I \ Knight, I.-.,,, knowi igriculture l.y his Lrcatise .... the Apple and Fear, 



man] valuable papers ... the Transactions of the Royal Society, and communication! ito the Board ..t Agri- 

 culture , ai.d ... gardening by numerous essay* and improvements, and his honourable offlceoi President 

 of the Horticultural Society. [Clark'* Herefordshire, 1794 Duncombe't Report, 1808. MarthaCs Re- 

 view, 1818.] 



1. Geographical Stale and Circumstance*. 



( lim.Hr, r. ... .ik .blj hi sldiy; w,.t winds the coldest; warm- 

 ait and earliest part about Ross. 



Soil. .>i n.iru fla; of nui r. -r-t . l i t % extends over most a the 

 county. 'Hi.- heaviest crops of wheal produced •». 

 tract lK-t».-,-ii Hereford and Ledburj ; the lightest lands in the 



l| \\ "in.. »i . .'mil known as the- " live land , 



[ produce there In former times. 

 :.. Iron on- In the andj district, bul none manuj .<- 

 turedai present. Bed indyellov. ochres, pipe-clay, and Allien 

 earth, bul onli the I .tier worked for. 



.b..umU ; lalmon caught in the Wye, but, owing to 

 the weir, and illegal practices, not 10 abundantly as formerly, 

 2 Proper t y. 



Burt Hospital, Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Oxford, Earl of 



1 ,,.. -.., • ', • omwall, ate. the largest proprietors. Their 



1 tided into firms of from 200 to MB acres. A number 



.1 estates from 100/. to 1000c. per annum constantly resided 



on in 1I1. ir owners, and 1 ultivated and managed 111 good style, 



.1 m to .In- introduction of the bis,t agricultural prac- 



1 he ten. 1. • "I' g iv. Ikind ..ml borough-english exist in 



.1 few places, bul are generally nullified by will. 



.; Building*. 



Some fine seals of proprietors, as Horn Lacy, Hampton 

 Court, li.^nt.m 1 lastle, 8tc Old farm-houses of wood, ill de- 

 signed, .mil placed : some good new ones op the Guy's Hospital 

 and other estates. Cottages Tery humble, and of an inferior; 

 , .ii-tiii. n. hi. Strawberries lately cultivated by some cottagers, 

 1. .I the Hereford market, with success and proiit. 



■1. Occupation. 



Sm ill farms on the decline; few opportunities now by which 

 an Industrious couple can devote 50/. or 100/., acquired by 

 ii.-r.onal labour, to stock a few acres, and bring up their family, 

 and pa., their latter vears in comparative independence. Hence 

 matrimony on the decline, and licentiousness on the increase. 

 Hence Dun. ombe humanely recommends proprietors to forego 

 the temporarj advantages of throwing the whole of their estates 

 into large farms, and advises some at alt sizes, from 5 to 500 

 ... res, i~ ultimately best for the country. " The old-fashioned 

 fanner of Herefordshire receives any new experiment in agri- 

 culture with great hesitation, if not reluctance. When its 

 Utility is confirmed by repeated trials, he slowly and gradually 

 falls mi., theprai dee; but he wisely leaves the experiment and 

 the ri-k to those who recommend or suggest it ; and happily 

 the county is at this moment well provided wilh agricultur- 

 ist., who' possess the means and the spirit to undertake the 

 patriotic task." Leases of twenty-one years most commonly in 

 three periods of seven years, determinable at the end of each 

 period by either landlord or tenant. 



5. Implements. 



Plough called the light lammas, without a wheel, and drawn 

 bv three- or four oxen gem -rally in a line, abreast ; but often the 

 soke is the usual mode of harnessing. Various improved im- 

 plements lis the amateurs, but none in general use. 



6 Arabic Land. 



Wheat principal grain cultivated, and generally sown on a 

 fallow. Cnangeofseed procured from the chalk hills of Ox- 

 fordshire; stis -pi-d in brine and lime, to guard against Termin 

 ami smut. Knight, late of Baton, now of Downton Castle, 

 steeps in water .mil lie n envelopes in lime, and his wheat was 

 as free from smut ami other diseases as that of his neighbours 

 from changed seed. Hill's a good deal cultivated, and chiefly 

 disposed of to Bristol dealers. 



7. (irass. 



Penile meadows on the Wye, Fi'ome, and Lug; mown anil 

 fed. Not a dairy county for home consumption, seldom t"r 

 exterior markets, or Smfthfii Id. Butter supplied from Wall *, 

 and cheese from Shropshire and Gloucestershire. "The 

 general toil of Herefordshire ppears to l»- unfavourable to the 

 making of cheese. T. A. Knight, with that accuracy and skill 

 which In- is known to p.. ..ess on all subjects connected with 

 agriculture and natural history, has proved by experiment, 

 that equal quantities of milk in Herefordshire ana Cheshire will 

 produce unequal quantities of curd, highly to the advantage of 

 Cheshire: .-in. I I rther, that better cheese has been produced 

 in that county, from milk, half of which has been previously 

 skimmed, than is produced in this from milk altogether un- 

 akimmed. The w rot, therefore, of complete success in this 

 ible be inch of rural economy is not solely to be attributed 

 to tin- warn of iii' in our dairy-maids; and the cause of failure 

 difficult of discovery, and consequently more 

 .1. .11. i.i. to he remedied, from an observation thai the plants 

 were nearly the same in the Herefordshire and Cheshire nas- 

 tur.-s, on winch the .ttM.ve experiments were mule, white 

 . r airfiund.il In each, with the crested dog-tail grassand 

 rji grass mixed II others in small quantities. Of such plants 

 Hi,',', ompost d 



bean triad, ami attended wii»i a greal Increase of |i 

 The grass is mown as soon aa It is I 

 previously to tin- formation of seed. The aftel 

 er ./..I until ii begins toconrj ce, in the 



1 or beginnii 



the ground rema rcreddui n the winter with a portion 



1.1 ,1. ...1 hi with 



the greatest vigour at sn earlj period of the succeeding 



spring. 



Itrden* auil Orchards. 

 I'mit tre.-. in-, extensive!; planted in Herefordshire in .he- 

 rim. [., by Lord Scudamore, of Home Lacy. 1 ir- 



rh .nls and bed of th* apple and pea. kind 



fbnrtdoni oil, and under every culture. The soil 



to most kinds ot apples, Is s da p ri. h loam when 



under the culture of the plough; the Sly re and golden pippin, 



In particular, form exceptions, and flourish most in a hot and 



shallow soil, on . i lime or sands! Thi best sorts of peat 



. prefer the rich lo bul Inferior kinds will even 



flourish where the soil will scarcely produce herbage. The 

 apples are iii.ileel into oul and new sorts; each class com- 

 prises some called kernel fruits, namely, the fruit crowing on 

 its native roots, as a distinction from those produced b) the 



operation of grafting. Tin- old sorts of apples are ti which 



i. ... i. en long introduced, such as the Styre, golden pippin, 

 hagloe-crabj several vanities of tin- Harvey; tin- brandy 

 apple, red streak, woodcock, movie, gennet, red, white, ami 

 yellow musks; fox whelp, loan, and old nesvrnairjs; dymock 

 red, ten commandments, and others. Some of these names 

 are descriptive of tin fruit, and others are derived from the 

 places where they have been first found, or found in most 

 abundance. The' old pears held in most estimation are. the 

 squash, so called from the tenderness of its pulp ; the oldneld, 

 from having grown as a seedling in a field of that name; the 

 huffcap, f .mi me quantity of fixed air contained in its liquor ; 

 the harl and, from fields in the parish of Kosbury, called the 

 Barlands; the sack pear, from its richness; and the red pear, 

 from its colour. Of more common sorts, the long-land is the 

 most valuable, and for the general use of the farmer perhaps 

 the best of any. 



9. Wood* and Plantations. 



Oak very abundant, and more rapid in its growth in this 

 county and Monmouthshire than in most parts of England, 

 laird Oxford's estate and Croft Castle contain the finest ..1.1 

 trees in the counts ; tine woods at Foxley, U- Price, Esq. ; most 

 luxuriant oak timber and coppices at Moccas Court anil Stoke 

 Park ; a curious we. ping oak at Mn. cas. Most productive ash 



coppices at Hampton Court and Ledbury ; cut i very tl irtei n 

 vears for crate ware, hurdles, &e. and bring from 18/. to 367. 

 per wood acre, which is to the statute acre as s to 5. Elm trees 

 are interspersed in the hedge-rows with fruit trees. 



10. Improvements. 



Braining much wanted, but practised chiefly by proprie- 

 tors; watering little practised, though introduced m 1610 by 

 R. Vaughan, Esq. of New Court, whose tract on the subject 

 has been ahead] mentioned. (4376.) Oneol the greatest expe- 

 riments in this way which have been attempted ot late years m 

 Herefordshire, has" been attended with complete success on the 

 estate of T. A. Knight. By making a weir on the river Teme, 

 with proper course's for the water, that gentleman is now 

 enabled to irrigate two hundred acres ofland, which were never 

 watered before, with the assistance of the least Hood; and one 

 half of that quantity even in the driest season. 



11. Live Stuck. 



Hereford cattle esteemed superior to most, if not to all, other 

 breeds ; those of Devon and Sussex nearest them in appearance. 

 Large size, an athletic form, and unusual neatness, character- 

 ise the true sort ; the prevailing colour is a reddish brown, 

 with white faces. The rearing of oxen for agricultural pur- 

 poses universally prevails ; nearly half the ploughing is per- 

 formed hs them", and they lake an equal share in the labours 

 of the harvest. They are shod with iron in situations which 

 frequently require their exertions on hard roads. The show of 

 oxen in thriving condition at the Michaelmas fair in Hereford, 

 cannot be exceeded by any similar annual collection in England ; 

 on this occasion thev'are "generally sold to the principal graziers 

 in the counties near the metropolis, and there perfected tor the 

 London markets. 



Herefordshire mi tiring a dmri/ing county, breeders direct 

 their attention to producing that form of animal best adapted 

 for feeding rather than milking. "The whole attention "f 

 the Leicestershire breeder has been directed to th; improve- 

 ment of his cow- ; and for the use of the grazier, he has made 

 her an excellent animal. The Herefordshire breeder, on the 

 contrary, has sacrificed the qualities of the cow to those .1 the 

 ox ; hedoes not value his cow according to the price which the 

 grazier would give for it, but in proportion as it possesses that 

 form and character which experience has taught him to lie 

 conducive lo the excellence of the future ox. Hence the cow 

 of Herefordshire is comparatively small, extremely delicate, 

 and very feminine in its characters. It is light-fleshed when 

 in common condition, but capable of extending Itseli univer- 

 sally in a short space of time, when fattening. Experience 

 seems fully to have proved, that these qualities in the cow are 

 necessary to perfection In the ox; and that when the cow is 

 large and masculine in Us character, and heavily loaded with 

 flesh, trie ox will lie coarse and brawny, and, consequentlyj 

 unkind and tedious In the process of fattening. It maj here 

 in remarked, that there is an exrraordinarj difference between 

 the weight of a Herefordshire cow and the ox bred from her ; 

 perhaps other sorts, eminent for producing fine ox. n, are 

 similar!} distinguished; but it is a fact, thai a Herefordshire 

 cow will nut unfrequently be the mother of an ox ..I nearly 

 three times her own weight. T. A. Knight, who made this 

 i on, recoil ictsno instance of this great disproportion 

 ill the weight of the males ami females ... the long-homed 

 cattle. Th .1 gentleman forth, r observes, that he is unable to 



discovi r what advantage the public have derived, or are lik.lv 



to derive, from a breed ot cattle which an- neither calculated 



for tin ilairy nor for breeding oxen. The ditlerence in the 



dairy between a good ami an tndiffl rent milking cow, on the 



p ist'ure which is aili.juile to the keep of the latter, will 



exceed fivepounds, and if the animal be good, a very 



mre will I..- sufficient; but the difference between a 



good and 1 ad "\ will often exceed tw. ntj p. muds, where both 



have consumed in fattening equal quantities of food -. individuals 



and the pul ic are, therefore, equallv and evidently interested 



in me improvement of the labouring ox. Persons of littleex- 



. Knight adds, in the breeding of cattle, may perhaps 



think ihai i ai is obtainable which will unite the two objects; 



but experience will convince them, that in endeavouring to 



