Book I. 



AGRICULTURE OF DORSETSHIRE. 



1167 



13 famous for its barley and ale, the predilection for this bever- 

 age renders the want of cider little felt. 



Wood* not numerous, but a great spirit for forming plant- 

 ations ; and some excellent remarks on the subject in the 

 Report. 



Irrigation introduced into this district the end of the seven- 

 teenth, or the beginning of the eighteenth century. Many of 

 the most valuable and best-formed meadows, particularly 

 those in the Wyley Bourne, were made under the directions of 

 one Farmer Baverstock of Stockton, between the years 1700 

 and 1705. 



Between 15,000 and 20,000 acres watered ; its great value in 

 .April between " hay and grass," by which the farmer is en- 

 abled to breed early lambs." As soon as the 1 .mbs are able to 

 travel with the ewes (perhaps about th-.- middle of March), the 

 flock is put into the water-meadows. Care is, or ought to be, 

 taken to make them as dry as possible for some days before the 

 sheep begin to feed them ; and on account of the quickness of 

 the grass, it is not usual to allow the ewes and lambs to go into 

 them with empty bellies, nor before the morning dew is gone. 

 The general hours of feeding are from ten or eleven in the 

 morning, till tour or rive in the evening, when the sheep are 

 driven to the fold, which a: that time of the year is generally in 

 the barley fallow. The grass is daily hurdled out in portions, 

 according to the number of sheep, to prevent their trampling it 

 down ; but a few spaces are left in the hurdles for the lambs to 

 get through and feed forward in the rich grass. One acre of 

 good giass will be sufficient for 500 couples for a day : the great 

 object is to make the water-grass last till the barley sowing is 

 finished; the meadow is then laid up for hay. 



The miter-meadows of Orcheston, a village six miles N. \V. 

 of Amesbury, have been long celebrated. What is called the 

 long grass of these meadows is said by Davis to be the ^grtfstis 

 6tolonifera, or black couch ; but this has been subsequently as- 

 certained to be a mistake. The grasses which compose these 

 meadows were examined by Thomas Tanner, a scientific bota- 

 nist, in 1S11, and reported on in the Farmer's Magazine, vol. xiv. 

 p. 129. ; and the following very interesting extract deserves the 

 attention and reflection of the farmer, for other reasons besides 

 its botanical information. It appears probable from it that 

 deep dry soil, which will admit the roots of saintfoin and other 

 long-rooted herbage plants, may, one year with another, yield 

 as much nutriment as rich irrigated surfaces, and probably at 

 much the same expense :— " Much has been said of the excellent 

 quality of the hay, when well made; that, for instance, it will 

 ratten pigs; and' that it abounds with the saccharine quality- 

 more than other grasses. If the testimony of the present occu- 

 pier and his neighbours can settle this question (and 1 see no 

 reason why they should not), the acre-able produce is not of 

 greater value, take seven years together, than an acre of good 

 saintfoin, or other artificial grasses. There is more risk in 

 making the meadow-grass than the field-grass, it being very- 

 soon spoiled bv bad weather, arising from its uncommon luxu- 

 riancy. I visited this meadow, for the first time, in the month 

 of May, 1S11, and found the major part of the crop to consist 

 of Poa trivialis, or rough-stalked meadow-grass, with a few 

 cidmi of the Triticum repens, or common couch, and meadow 

 foxtail. In the last spring I again examined the meadow very 

 particularly, and found the crop to consist of the same grasses 

 as before, varying a little in their proportions. The Triticum 

 repens made a greater appearance, in the month of August 

 I took another ride to see if florin was taking the lead of the 

 other glasses- This I was prepared for, and expected to find; 

 but it was by no means the case : I could discover no more of 

 the stolonlfera than before. On examining the hay of the 

 second crop, it consisted of the cultni of grasses common to all 

 meadows, with tfce exception of the Triticum repens. The 



fo 



ass, at this season, prevailed. In soils in general, when laid 

 own to pasture, the common couch (Triticum) soon wears 

 out, it mil not bear the constant treacling of catile. Where. 

 ever this grass is found in pasture, it proves either that the 

 field has not long been laid to pasture, or the soil remarkably 

 rich. The latter is the case in this instance. But you will say, 

 What is the long grass of which we read »o much ? It remains 

 for me to mention a peculiarity in the grasses in this meadow, 

 and some others in its vicinity, which 1 do not recoliect to have 

 seen in anv other to the same de^n-ee, arising proba! h fiom the 

 warmth arid richness of the soil. \\ hen the water begin* to re- 

 cede, in the late spring months, the culmi of all the grasses 

 (the P6a trivialis in particular), from their great luxuriancy, 

 lodge on the soil, and form a complete mat, and in this state 

 throw out roots at their joints, and appear, before their panicles 

 show, to he the sto/ones of some stoloniferous grasses. Let a 

 person, not previously informed of this circumstance, visit the 

 meadow in the latter end of April, and he would probably, with 

 others, suspect the whole, or greater part of the produce, to he 

 a stoloniferous production. 1 have traced the culnii, for in- 

 stance, of the P. trivialis and /oxtail amongst the mat of other 

 grasses, for fourteen or .fifteen feet, with roofs at all the joints, till, 

 at the last, they shot up erect, and were taken off by the scythe 

 onlv about tmo feet long. The mat of culmi on the ground is 

 left untouched bv the scythe when mown, very similar to the 

 Hulks of an mergronm crop of vetches. The /Igrdstis stolonlfera 

 is one of the latest grasses we have, and never was known, even 

 in a cultivated state, to produce a crop till the autumnal 

 months. But it is asked, ' How is it that it grows so rapidly in 

 its natural state, as to enter largely into a hay crop, cut the 

 last week in May ?■ Here is the mistake ; — the culim of other 

 grasses, throwing out routs at their joints, have been considered 

 as the stolones of this ^grostis." {Farm. Mag. vol. xiv. p. 131.) 

 These meadows are not laid out in anv regular form for water- 

 ing, the supplv of water being too partial, but they depend en- 

 tirely on the floods; and being situated at a sharp turn of a 

 narrow part of the valley, the water makes an eddy, and de- 

 posits its sediments upon them. The substratum of these 

 meadows is an almost entire bed of loose flints. 



On examining other meadows in different bournes of this 

 district, we find the same grass uniformly to abound in those 

 situated near the spring-heads, and which in some years have 

 plenty of water, and in others none at all. The same remark 

 on its variation in quality and quantity, according to the wet- 



7819 DORSETSHIRE. 711,250 acres of undulating surface, in great part chalky soil, and cdebrated 

 from the "time of theRomans for its pleasantness and fertility. Like Berkshire and some other cmmt.es. 

 itTcalilxl b> the inhabitants the garden of England. It is chiefly under grass, and >s celebrated tor >U 



ness or dryness of the winter, is equally just. The most pro- 

 bable way of accounting for it is, that it is almost the only 

 grass common to \\ ater- meads that will stand wet and dry ; for 

 though it nourishes most when under water, yet no dry weather 

 will kill it- 



Live Stock. Cattle few in this district ; oxen not generally 

 under the plough; sheep the chief stock and the basis of tha 

 Wiltshire Down husbandry ; object* folding and wool ; breed- 

 ing a consequence rather than a cause of keeping sheep. Horse? 

 a heavy, very unsuitable breed ; great error in principle of 

 breeders here as every where among the old school, that of en- 

 larging the size of the animal. 



7818. North Wiltshire. 



Climate milder than that of the S. E. district; soil not so 

 uniform ; under stratum broken stones, and surface reddish 

 calca.eous lo.Tm. 



Property more divided than in the east side of the county. 



Buildings. Charlton, a noble pile, by Inigo Jones. 1- arms 

 generally enclosed, and chiefly under grass, and applied to the 

 making of cheese ; leases fi om fourteen to twenty-one years. 



Scotch fanners. " Within these few years several of the 

 great landholders in Wiltshire have introduced into this dis- 

 trict Scotch farmers, who, from a supposed superior skill in the 

 science of agriculture, have leases for twenty-one years, wich 

 scarcely any restrictions as to husbandry. The ancient pastures 

 are allowed to be urokenup ; buildings are erected for their ac- 

 commodation at a low rate of inttrest ; and a degree of counte- 

 nance and patronage given to them above the oti-er tenants of 

 the day. These men give nominally a large rent for their 

 farms ; but as their maxim is to pay neither repairs, tiihes, nor 

 parochial taxes of any desciiption (these dues and services being 

 all included in the rent received by the landlord), 1 lave strong 

 doubts whether the advantages held out to the landowners will 

 be, ultimately, any increase of net cash into their pockets. In 

 strong loamy counties, or in richsands, 1 am aware much profit 

 may be made by an economical system of husbandry in the til- 

 lage ; but the practice of the Scots farmers not embracing 

 sheep, or water-meadows, will never make them rich on the 

 Down farms of Wiltshire ; and if the Downs be broken up by 

 the tenants, who have no stock to maintain them, the land and 

 the farmer will soon come to poverty together." (Davis, 174-5.) 

 Among these farmers was the unfortunate Gourlay, who was 

 ultimately ruined by the speculation. Of his farming we know- 

 nothing, nor are we aware what description of Scotch farmers 

 they can have been whose husbandry in an inland turnip district 

 did" not embrace sheep. On the "Karl of Suffolk's estate at 

 Charlton, some Berwickshire farmers were introduced in part 

 through our means, whose chief object was the sheep system. 

 The Lord Suffolk, however, of that time being a weak man, 

 without an opinion of his own, got so alarmed by his family at 

 the idea of breaking up old turf, that he bought up the leases of 

 these farmers almost as soon as they were granted. 



The arable part of this district "is on the north-west verge, 

 being a part of the Cotswolds hills, and treated like them. 



Gmss land prevails almost to the exclusion of arable on all 

 wet and heavy lands: their management of late much im- 

 proved bv draining, manuring, winter burning, early mowing, 

 and feeding and mowing ever* piece of land alternately. The 

 grand object in these improvements is, to get an early bite 

 for the cattle in the spring, and thereby, in fact, to shoiten the 

 winter. 



The cheese of this district was many years sold in the London 

 market by the name of Gloucester cheese; but it is now per- 

 fectly well known by the name of " North Wiltshire Cheese." 

 It was at first, doubtless, an imitation, and perhaps an humble 

 one, of that made in the vale of Gloucester, but it is now 

 allowed by many to be at least equal, if not superior, to the 

 cheese of the favourite district of Gloucestershire, the hundred 

 of Berkeley. 



Gardens not numerous : some near Wootton Basset, for sup- 

 plying the markets of Crick lade, Cirencester, &c. 



Orchards frequent as an appendage to farm-houses, but no 

 cider made. 



Wood frequent in hedgerows, but not in masses. 



Irrigation not common; springs scanty, and land too ab- 

 sorbent ; alleged they produce coarse grass, but this is owing 

 to its not being mown in time. 



6. Live stock. 

 Cattle of the long-homed breed ; Devon* bred, and found 



better for fatting, but it is questionabie if they are so good fur 

 the dairv. Breeding cattle not the fashion. " The dairymen 

 say, that the advantages which their situation gives them of 

 sending their veal to London and Bath markets, makes it more 

 their interest to fat their calves than to wean them fur stoc k ; 

 but the opponents of the long-horned cows say, that the oxen 

 are generally so ugly, and the heifers frequently such bad 

 milkers, that the farmers are never certain of breeding such as 

 thev would wish to keep; and therefore they prefer buying 

 cows (of which they can have a choice) to breeding them, and 

 to use horses for the plough instead of oxen." 



Many sheep bred in the district; some for folding, and oil ers 



Eurposely for fatting; for these purposes a kind to walk, and a 

 ind to stand still, necessary : the Wiltshire answers the former 

 purpose, and the Leicester the latter. 



There are yet left in North Wilts a few flocks of the native 

 Wiltshire horned sheep, possessing qualities of perfection, both 

 for folding and fatting. They stand short in the kg, with wool 

 under their bellies ; are wide and heavy in the hmd-quarter, 

 light in the fore quarter and in all their offals, with the Kenan 

 nose, and quick piercing eyes. These are in the hands of a few 

 farmers near Broad Hinton. 



7. Political EcoJiomy. 

 As applicable to both districts it is observed, that the turnpike 



roads are numerous and good in most places; three canals; 

 extensive woollen manufactures at Salisbury ; al>o cutlery of 

 superior excellence there; carpets at Wilton, and fancy 

 woollens ; and of superfine broad-cloths at a great many places. 

 No agricultural society, but many farmers and others are mem- 

 bers of the Bath and West of England Society. 



