1160 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part IV. 



ot sail sulphur spring near Durham, and another on Lard 

 Durham's ot *t *-, w Ufa pubic baths and rin u\ng momi 

 Othefl ot less note. 



2 Property 



1,000/, to 2* ,0007. ft Tear; several from 

 I00UL to SOOOt., rrona whii h they descend by regular ^> 



oiliest Min - - itei Id bj proposal; but the 



■\ n rent, ind treat with tenant! »ix or 

 ■even tnontbj eases expire. 



.;. Butldings, 



and slate ; cottages of one story, covered 

 with thatch or dies, 



4. Occupation. 



t looo acre*, gr e atest number from 150 

 i ■■.-.■■■'. ho have 



made Improvement! ; among these. Messrs. < u lej and I h irge 

 first led the war* and have been followed bj Messrs. Collins, 

 Mason, Taj lor. Trotter, Nfsham, Sej moor, and many others, 

 l judicious selection of stock this district 

 \* 111 be uttttnjrlj ben 



test number of small labouring farmers greater slaves 



than the r servants) being generally employed through the 



summer, m some kind of work or other, from four o'clock 



tornlng ti i eight ol night ; and in every other sea- 



the year from twilight to twilight; and may truly be 



to rise early, take rest late, and eat the bread of 



. 



Leases, three, five, and seven years, excepting church and 



corporation teases for til years, and lives. Those farms let for 



iborl terms remain stationary, as no prudent man will lav 



OUl bis money in improvements, for which, when completed", 



he will be rewarded by an advance of rent, proportioned to 



the improvement he has made. 



5. Implement*. 



Swing ploughsof the Rotherham kind ; of late the Small's 

 plough ; various other uood implements, and in manv parts 

 now (1830) the improved forms of Northumberland and 

 Berwickshire. 



6. Enclosing. 



On dry soils hedges are frequently planted on a raised 

 mound, forty Inches broad, and the height twelve inches ; 

 a small ditch is cut on each side to make it, and the quicks 

 are planted in the middle. In this mode the land may be 

 ploughed nearly to the mound, and when the thorns are 

 grown to a Sufficient height, almost close to the hedge. 

 When they are five or six years old, everv other stem is cut 

 clean off, within two or three inches of the surface, and the 

 remaining ones stripped of their principal branches then 

 st kki I ot thirty inches h gh are driven in at proper distances, 

 and the splashing stems, having a slight cut on one side to 

 make them l»end easier, are wound amongst the stakes at an 

 angle of about twenty- five degrees, and a single edder is 

 wound round the top to keep the stakes tight. 



7. Arable lands. 



Ploughing generally well executed, but in some places the 



revtnts nifflciem depth of furrow, i.e. six inches. 



The turnip culture, rotations, and general management of 



ind, the same as In Northumberland; that is, of the 



most Improved kind; seventeen tons of Ruu baga are equal 



to thirty one tons of white turnip in feeding cattle or sheep. 



Mustard was formerly much crown in this county, and 

 Durham nm lard was proverbial for its excellence. At pre- 

 sent a crop of must rd is rani, met with. It is generally 

 sown upon pared and burned land in April, one pound per 

 acre. The produce about twenty bushels per acre; and price 

 from eight to sixte n Shillings per bushel. 



Potatoes in the village of Hamstely have been the principd 

 article of trade, and the principal emplovment of several 

 families for eighty years; they are very particular in having 

 good sets, each with two eyes ; use reddish or pink sorts, 

 plant in March and April, and both horse and hand-hoe; no 

 curl appears among them, but sometimes they B run wild," 

 or tend to that state, producing more flowers than usual, ind 

 continuing flowering much later, sometimes till Michaelmas, 

 and producing few tubers and slender stems. Whenever tins 

 is observed, tue tubers of such potatoes are no longer used 

 for propagation. 



8. Grass. 



Not much old surface, what there is chiefly upland 



9. Woods and Plantations. 



Scampston elm, from a place of that name in Yorkshire, 

 but supposed originally from America, will make shoots from 

 grafts, in one year, of a or ti feet ; introduced in young plant- 

 ations by Messrs. Falla, eminent nurserymen of Gates- 

 he td; vale of Dement well wooded; &ir"J. Eden a great 

 planter. 



10. Embankments. 



Bejun on the Tees in 1740, and about 1500 acres secured 

 between that period and 1MJ0. 



11. Live Stock. 



Short-horned cattle. The famous Durham ox bred by 

 Charles Colling of Kellan, in 1*96. 



Sheep. Teeswater and Leicester breed: stock bred, reared, 

 and fed in the most scientific manner, especially b> the larger 

 farmers mentioned above (4). 



1-J. Political Economy. 



Turnpike roads first made in 1742 ; materials, whinstone, 

 limestone, river gravel, and freestone. Hoads excellent w here 

 materials are broken sufficiently small : they are also in good 

 repair. Milestones on some roads, hollow triangular prisms 

 of cast-iron, with projecting letters and figures. They are 

 two and a half feet high, and fixed on an oak post, four and 

 a half feet long, sunk tw o and a half feet in the earth, (iuide- 

 posts much wanted. No iron railways, and no public roads 

 or canals. 



Manufactures. "Wrought iron foundri'-s, glass-houses, pot- 

 teries, salt, copperas, sal ammoniac, coal tar, paper, woollen, 

 cotton, and linen cloth. Several aifricultural societies; the 

 first established at Darlington in 17S3. 



Durham, called 



2iKJ acres, chit-fly 



*iie celebrity of this 



county both lor its tillage and breeding is well known. Here turnips were first extensively cultivated 

 in We drill manner, and the best principles of breeding practised by Culley. To this gentleman and 

 Bailey agriculture owes much : the latter was, perhaps, one of the most enlightened and accomplished 

 ot modern agriculturists. {Bailey and Cullcy's General View, 1805. Marshal's Review, 1808. Smith's 

 Geological Map, 1824. 



1. Geographical State and Circumstances. 

 Climate subject to great variation of temperature; snow to 

 a considerable depth on the mountains, when there is none 

 in the lower districts; weather runs in extremes; verv cold 

 in spring, and seldom mild l>efore June. 



Sod and Surface. Strong fertile loam along the coast ; sandv, 

 gravelly, and dry loam on the Tyne, from Newborn to Haft- 

 vnistle, on the Coquet about Kothburv ; on the A In, from 

 Alnwick to the sea; down T weeds ide, but chief] v in the 

 Breamisri H il ami Beaumont. The hills surround- 

 ing the Cheviot mountains are mostly a dry sharp gravelly 

 Mewl loam occupies a large portion of the county, 

 Unsafe for sheep, and unfit for turnips, and peat earth pre- 

 vails in the mountainous districts. 



I >;rfrf of the surface is marked with great variety; 



■long the sea-coast it is nearly level ; towards the middle 



more diversified, and thrown into large swelling ridges 



formed by the principal rivers. These parts are well en :losed 



in some places enriched with wood and recent plantations, 



but the general appearance is destitute of those ornaments. 



tern part (except a few intervening vales) is an ex- 



1 I open mountainous district, where the hand 



I* traced. Of the mountainous 



. hose around < heviot are the most valuable, beina 



• green hills, thrown into numberless variety 



"id sheltering main deep, narrow, and 



ts. Coal in abundance in the creatcst part of the 



countv : it is like that of Durham of the caking kind, and is 



round m the south-east quarter of the best quality - quan- 



for the London mat I ondon 



1 that the whi le coal ..t the tounties of 



tie and Durham will be exhausted In 550 years. Lime- 



lj .marl, lead ore. and ore of zinc i" small 



. ind ir<m are all worked. 



The 1 vne and Tweed have been lone a 



f-r their salmon (liberies: In the latter a rent orBOOL avear 



apaldl ■ two hundred vards In lengthy near the 



mouth of the river ; end the same rent | . h of two 



dgl , not II ore than tWO bundled 



and fifty vards m length each. The fish taken her. are, tl e 

 wlmon, bulltrout, whiting, and large common trout, and 

 nearly the whole of them - nt to I -ondon ; in the conveyance 

 of wh'-h.ji great improvement has taken place of late rears, 

 by pa* Vine them in pounded ice; bj this means thej are 



pieseiited nearly as fresh at the London market, as when 



and keeping up a constant and regular supply, vessels called 

 smacks sail three times a week, and being purposely con- 

 structed for swift sailing, frequently make their run in forty- 

 eight hours. These vessels are from 70 to 1^0 tons burden ; 

 on an average twelve men are employed in each vessel, and 

 make about fourteen voyages in avear; and not less than 75 

 boats and 300 fishermen are employed in taking the fish in 

 the River Tweed. 



2. Property, 



One estate upwards of 40,000 acres, the rest varv from 

 10 to 20,000; small estates rare in the northern part' of the 

 county. Few counties in which estates have been so rapidly 

 improved ; several instances of the value trebled in forty 

 years ; principal cause letting large farms on twenty-one years* 

 leases. Usual mode of letting farms is to fix a Vent six or 

 twelve months before the expiration of the lease; but upon 

 one of the largest estates in the county (the Earl of Tank- 

 erville's), the tenants have an offer of their farms two years 

 and a half or three years before the expiration of the tease, 

 which is a mutual benefit to both landlord and tenant, and 

 Is attended with so many advantages, that it is in a fair way 

 of being generally adopted. 



3. Buildings. 



Farmeries formerly very shabby and ill contrived, now totally 

 different. The most approved form of distributing the various 

 offices is, on the east, west, and north sides of a rectangular 

 parallelogram (,/tf . 1011.) which is generally divided into two 

 tnUl.yartLs for cattle of dirlerent ages, the south being left open 

 to admit the sun; and for the same reason, and also for the 

 sake of cleanliness and health, the farm-house \a) is removed 

 in front th rty or forty yards; between which and the south 

 wall ot the fold is a small court for coa's and voting poultry ; the 

 barn (M is IS feet by CO, with threshing-machine driven by 

 horses, water, wind, or steam; on each side are sheds (c c), 

 over which are granaries; lievond these, as wings to the main 

 Square, are sheds [d rf), upon which are built corn-stacks. One 

 beds is tor wintering yearling calves, the other for 

 holding implements of the larger kind. On the east of the 

 mam square is the stable («), and in the west a house for cows 

 and fatting ox n (f , each 16 feet by 48 feet. Over the pig- 

 re poultry houses which open into the courtyard of 

 the hmi-e. as the piggeries do into the fold- vards for wintering 



piggeries 

 young cattle \h h). 



■« of stone and lime and tiled ; floor of lime and sand ; 



a^n out rfSS rV- I v ? ,V ' ° ml,m ? lfket ' M l Wn r he 1 ?™1 roo,n liftem ** b - v »*«", and the cow-house nine 

 i*k<.n out ot the river, i-ur the purjtose of carrying them, ' feet by sixteen. 



