Book I. 



AGRICULTURE OF CUMBERLAND. 



1161 



4. Occupation. 



Farms generally large in the north, some from yno/. to 4ni>/. 

 a year ; in various parts farms from 50/. to 100/ , ,.nd from It* it- 

 to* 1000/. or 1500/. a year. The capital ince*>ary 

 for such farms enttles the farmer* to a good edu- 

 cation, and gives them a spirit of independence 

 and enterprise, that is rarely found amongst the 

 occup<ers of small farms and short leases. Their 

 minds b-ing open to conviction, they are reiuly to 

 try new experiments and adopt every beneficial im- 

 provement that can be learned in other districts ; 

 for this purpose, many of them have traversed the 

 most distant parts of the kingdom to obtain ngri- 

 cultural knowledge, and have transplanted every 

 practice thev thought superior to those they were 

 acquainted with, or that could be advantageously 

 pursued in their own situation , and scarcely a 

 year passes without some of them making exten- 

 sive agricultural tours, for the sole purpose of 

 exairuning the modts of culture, of purchasing or 

 hiring the most improved breeds of stock, and 

 seeing the operations of new invented and more 

 useful implements. 



5. Implements. 



Of the most approved kind ; and some of these, 

 as the plough, drill, hoise-hoe, &c. owe their chief 

 merits to the improvements of Bailey. A pair of 

 pruning shears recommended as preferable to 

 those in common use for cutting hedges. They 

 consist of a strong sharp knife, six inches long, 

 moving b ■ -twist two square-edged cheeks; the 

 upper handle is two feet six inches long, and the 

 other two feet three inches. (See Encyclopaedia 

 qf Gardenitig, 2ded. 1334../%:. 122.J 



6. Enclosures. 

 Size of fields varies with the size of the farms ; in some paits 



from two to sis or eight acres ; in the northern parts, where ;he 

 farms are large, from 20 to 100 acres. The quicks should 

 never be planted nearer each other than nine inches, and, upon 

 good land, a foot. Quicks four or five \ ears old, with strong 

 clean stems, are always to be preferred to those that are 

 \ounger and smaller. "It is a custom in some parts to clip 

 young quicks every year: this makes the fence look neat and 

 but it checks their growth, and keeps them always we«k 



Arbigland, In Dumfriesshire, began to drill uimifrt about 1745 ; 

 and next we find Philip Howard of Corby drilling in 1755; 

 and Pringle drilling "from hints taken from Tull's book," in 



101 1 



/ 



T 



-H- 



U 



■ ■ ■ » ■ 



i i i 



feet 



snug ; _ - 



in the stem, and, when they grow old, open at bottom ; while 

 those that are left to n iture'get strong stems and side branches, 

 which, by interweaving one with another, make a thick and 

 impenetrable hedge, and if cut at proper intervals (of nine or 

 ten years!, will always maintain its superiority over those that 

 have been c'ipped from their first planting. In point of profit, 

 and of labour saved, there is no comparison ; and for beauty, 

 we prefer nature, and think a luxuriant hawthorn, in full 

 bloom, or laden with its vipened fruit, is a more pleasing, en- 

 livening, and gratifying object, than the stiff, formal sameness 

 produced by the shears. 



7. Arable Land. 



Trench ploughing practised by a few in breaking up grass 

 lands. About 1703, when horses were scarce and dear, a good 

 many oxen were used for ploughing and carting about the 

 farm ; but after a few vears' trial, they were given up : they were 

 harnessed both with yokes and collars, and only ploughed half 

 a dav at a time. 



Fmloiving on all soils once in three or four years, was general 

 through the county till the introduction of turnips. On soils 

 improper for this root, the naked fallow still prevails ; but the 

 quantity of fallow probably on all soils will, after a long series 

 of goodculture, become less necessary, and may in many cases 

 be finally dispensed with. 



Turnips were first grown in the northern parts of the county 

 about 17'23. Proctor, the proprietor of Roch, brought Andrew 

 Willey, a gardener, to cultivate turnips at Roch, for the pur. 

 pose of feeding cattle; that Willey afterwards settled at Les- 

 rjury, as a gardener, and was employed for many years to sow 

 turnips for all the neighbourhood; and his business this way 

 was so great, he was obliged to ride and sow, that he might 

 despatch the greater quantity. 



Hoeing turnips was introduced at the same time, and at first 



Fractisea b\ gardeners, and other men, at extravagant wages, 

 ldeston, about thirty years since, had the merit of first reduc- 

 ing the price of hoeing, by teaching boys, girls and women 

 to perform the work equally as well, if not better than men. 

 The mode he took w as simple and ingenious : by a light plough, 

 without a mould-board, be divided the field info small squares 

 of equal magnitude, and directed the boys and girls to leave a 

 certain number of plants in each square. In a sbort time they 

 became accurate, regular, and expert hoers ; and, in a few 

 years, all the turnips in the county were hoed by women and 

 boys, at half the expense, and better than by men. 



The broadcast culture of turnips, in the northern parts of the 

 countv, was not inferior to any we ever saw ; and in respect lo 

 accurate, regular, clean hoeing, superior to what we ever ob- 

 served in Norfolk, Suffolk, or other turnip districts which we 

 have frequently examined. (Bailey.) 



Drilling turnips was first introduced to the county al 



1756 or 17.57. William Dawson, who was well acquainted 

 with the turnip cultme in England, having hen purposely 

 sent to resid.- in those districts tor six or seven years, where the 

 b st cultivation was pursued, with an intention, not only of 

 seeing but of making himself master of the manual operations, 

 and of all the minutiae in the practice, was convinced of the 

 superiority of l'ringlc-'» mode over every other he had seen, 

 either in Norfolk oi elsewhere; and in 176'.!, when he entered 

 to Frogden farm, near Kelso, in Roxburghshire, he imme- 

 diately adopted the practice upon a large scale, to the amount 

 of llJO' acres yearly. Though none of l'ringle's neighbours fol- 

 lowed the example, vet, no sooner did Dawson, an actual or rent - 

 p tying farmer, adopt the same system, than it was immediately 

 followed, not only by several farmers in his vicinity, but by 

 those very farmers adjoining Pringle, whose crops they had 

 seen, for ten or twelve years, so much superior to then; own : 

 the practice in a few years became general. 



8. Grass. 

 Not much old grass in the county. 



9. Woods. 

 Not very numerous, though a considerable demand for small 



wood by the proprietors of the collieries and lead mines. Arti- 

 ficial plantations rising in every part of the county. 



10. Improvements. 

 Embanking and irrigation practised in a few places which 



require or admit of these operations. 

 Jl. Live Stock. 

 Cattle the short-homed, long-horned, Devon hire, and wild 



&'*«;•, the Cheviot, heath, and long woolled. The modem 

 maxims of breeding were introdurtd into the county by one of 

 Bakewell's first disciples, Culley of South Durh m.well known 

 for his work on Live Stock, previous to which, "big bones" 

 and " large size" were looked upon as the principal criterion 

 of excellence, and a sacred adherence to the rule of never 

 breeding within the canonical degrte of relation-hip : but those 

 prejudices are at this period in a great measure done away ; 

 and the principal farmers of this district ma now be classed 

 amongst the most scientific breeders in the kingdom, who have 

 pursued it with an ardour and unremitting attention that have 

 not failed of success. 



Horses for draught brought from Clydesdale. 



Goafs are kept in small numbers on many parts or the I heviot 

 hills, not so much as an object of profit, buf.he shepherd asserts, 

 that the steep flocks are healthier where a few goats do pas- 

 ture. This probably may be the case, as it is well known that 

 goats eat some plants with impunity that are deadly poison to 

 other kinds of domestic animals The chief profit made of 

 these goats is, fiom their milk being sold to invalids, whocome 

 to Wooler in the summer season. 

 12. Political Economy. 



Roads of whin or limestone, and mostly good. Manufac- 

 tures, gloves at Hexham, plait straw for cottagers' and labourers' 

 hats, and also for those of the higher classes. Woollens in a 

 few places ; and a variety of works connected with the coal 

 trade and mines at Newcastle. No agricultural societies, these 

 Bailey holds in little estimation; but thinks if public farms 

 were established in each countv, and supported by a rate on the 

 income of its proprietors, they would he the most effectual 

 means of promoting agricultural improvement. 



res of mountainous district, remarkable for its picturesque beauty, 

 and I also oflate greatiy improved in its agriculture. The exertions of the late Bishop of Llandaff.n plant- 

 ing, and of J. C. Curwen. 

 which, as far as its soil and 

 gle's General Review, 

 Smith's Geological Map, 1824.) 



1. Introductory Observations. 



Pringle informs us that " tr<es and plants, being altogether 

 passive, accommodate themselves very slowly to a change of 

 climate ; but the idea has been already thrown out, that even 

 those of the torrid zone may lie made to flourish in the northern 

 regions ; may be even gradually inured to the climate ; that the 

 climate itself may be changed' for the better ; and that some 

 thousands of years hence, reposing under their own o'ne trees, 

 future Britons may quaff their own wine, or sip their own tea, 

 sweetened with the juice of their own sugar-cane." 



17S0. Drilling this, as well as other crops, evidently originated 

 with Tull, whose first work, Specimen of a Work on Horse, 

 hoeing Husbandry, appeared in 1731. If appears that Craig.of 



ID. 970.240 acres of mount; 



mproved in its agriculture. 



,, Esq. in Held culture, have contributed much to the improvement of this county, 



and climate permit, may be considered as on a par with Northuniberland / > »- 



1794 General View, by J. Bailey and G. Culley, 1804. Marshals Review, 1808. 



Pringle " found it impossible" not to mention to the Board 

 that he was remarkably well treated when he surveyed the 

 county, which " filled him with peculiar fee bags of pleasure 

 and r.st.ect." Some of those feelings he voids on Sir John 

 Sinclair in the following terms;- "What gratitude is due to 

 nim'f'i who first called the attention of the nation to its most 

 important interests, and whose unremitted efforts are directed 

 to promote the good of his country I How well doe. hedeserie, 

 an5 what a sure road has he chosen to, immortal fame that will 

 survive the ravages of time, and smile at the fleeting celebrity 



