11 so 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Parx IV. 



10. Woods and Plantations. 



Fifty thousand acres, chiefly natural and ornamental scenery. 

 Some line old elms at Gossford. At Saint Osyih the three 

 oriijinal Lombardy poplars which Lord Rochford brought from 

 Italy about 1758, and from which the greater part of those in 

 the kingdom have been raised ; they are seventy feet high and 

 seven feet three inches in circumference, <ive feet from the 

 ground ; a Portugal laurel more than fifty -two yards in circum- 

 ference, and a very large ^'rbutus. The largest aliele trees in 

 England at Bellhouse, Aveley; large elms; Lord Petre has 

 sold thirtten oaks for (iOOl. at 13/. a load including top and 

 bark. Oaks at Hatlield worth 100 guineas each. Hatfield 

 broad oak celebrated, but now in ruins. An oak at Wimbish 

 increased in girtli four and a half inches in thirteen years ; a 

 larch, two feet nine inches in the same time; the larch, how- 

 ever, was younger. 



11. Wastes. 



Fifteen thousand acres ; said that in James the First's time 

 almost the whole county was waste. 



12. Improvements. 



A good deal of draining; a machine in use like the Flemish 

 mouldeb,:e.'t (Jig. 69.) for lowering the surf ice of ploughed 

 lands at those places where they intend making cio^s-furrows 

 to carry off the water from the regular furrows. The drain- 

 ing wheel (3978.) in use, inventor not mentioned. Chalk much 

 used as a manure. 



13. Live Stock. 



Essex never famous for this branch. The largest dairy 

 farms at or near Epping, famous for its butter and cream ; 

 no particular sort of cows kept ; Derby and I^icestershire 

 Inreeds preferred, but any taken ; fed on natural and artificial 

 " summer, and hay and grains in winter : dairies built 



on the north sides of the farm-houses ; milk kept in troughs 

 lined with lead, which hold nine to ten gallons of^milk, live to 

 six inches in depth. This in winter is skimmed four, and in 

 summer two or three times, and the cream, after being kept 

 three or four days, churned ; milk given to hogs. A few cows 

 kept for milk ; in other places for suckling calves, and feeding 

 on the marshes. Western has the finest "swine in the county ; 

 feeds them in what he calls a hog case ; a cage which effectually 

 prevents the animal from taking exercise. A hog half fat put 

 into a case gains fifteen pounds a week, if well fed with barley 

 meal and water. A miller, near Maldon, has made a treble 

 case on wheels, to keep moving about on grass land, for its 

 improvement. A portable bridge, carried on a pair of wheels, 

 for passing sheep over marsh ditches, in use by AVakelield of 

 Bournham. (fid. 983.) A decoy for ducks and other aquatic 



birds In I\Iersoa Island, the largest In the ooimty. Every jier- 

 son that approaches a decoy takes a piece of lighted tu.f bluck 



983 



on a table fork in his hand, to prevent the ducks from smelling 

 man. Without this caution they will quit the pond. A decoy 

 at Goldhanger, at which one waggon load and two cart loads of 

 dun birds were taken at one haul of the nets ; but the disturb- 

 ance so frightened such as escaped, that no more were taken 

 that season. Seven fish ponds at Spaines Hill for carp, tench, 

 and eels. A chain of ponds at Leigh's Priory, l>elonging to 

 Guy's Hospital, near a mile in length, and occupying about 

 thirty acres, once completely sluiced and carefully cultivated, 

 now dry and neglected. 



14. Rural Economy. 



Labour done generally by the piece. 



15. Political Economy. 



Roads mostly good ; few canals ; various fairs ; and some 

 cattle markets. In the creeks of Crouch, Blackwater, and 

 other rivers and estuaries, considerable quantities of oysters 

 are deposited for breeding. The produce is afterwards dredged 

 and deposited at Wivenhoe and other i>!aces for feeding. 

 ^Vhat are called Colchester oysters are fed there, and sent to 

 Hainburgh, Flanders, and France, in time of peace, as well as 

 to London. Oysters are also dredged on the Hampshire coast, 

 and fed in the Coin, or Colchester beds. No distinct account 

 of the oyster economy, however, is given in the report. TJicre 

 are salt-water ponds' for various sorts of sea fish in Foulness 

 island ; the fish are caught in weirs on the extensive sandy 

 co'ists, and deposited, when plentiful, in these ponds, whence 

 they are dragged for with small nets, as wanted. 



Marmfadurea of woollen have existed from time immemorial 

 in the county ; also of sacks, hop bags, calicoes, baize, lime, 

 bricks. Much baize made at Colchester, Coggeshall, and 

 other places, for Spain. A society of agriculture at Chelmsford. 



7782. HERTFORDSHIRE. A surface of upwards of 400,000 acres, the north part forming a chalky 

 ridge, which extends across the kingdom in this direction ; the general features are rich, woody, and the 

 agriculture various, chiefly tillage ; the corn produced equal in quality to any in the kingdom. Ellis, a 

 well known agricultural author, farmed in this county. ( fyalker's Report, 1795. Arthur Young's Survey, 

 107. Marshal's Review, 1818.) 



1. Geographical State and Circumstances. 



Climiite, dry and healthy. 



Soil, chiefly loam and clayey loam, next chalk, and a small 

 part bordering on Middlesex gravel ; vales, rich sandy loams, 

 chiefly under pasture, and woods very beautiful. Naturally 

 barren, but rendered fertile by careful cultivation. 



2. Property. 



]Mu?h divided, the county being a favourite one for wealthy 

 persons building villas and other i-etreats. 7000/. a year the 

 largest estate; great part copyl'old, which sells here at six 

 years' piirchase less than freehold. 



3. Buildings. 



Hatfield, Cashioburv, Ashridge (partly also in Bucks), Gor- 

 liambury. Brocket, the Hoo, the Grove,"Gilstone, Ware Park, 

 &c. noble mansions. Brown's farm-yard, at North IMiras, 

 one of the best in the county. Immense bams at North 

 Mims and Bedfordbun-. Gutters to the eaves of farm buildings 

 at Alkenham ; wide Fattening stalls, with conveniences for 

 giving hay, water, and oil-cake. Cottages seldom with land 

 attached. A moveable sheep-house at Hillhouse, a cumbrous 

 expensive affair, of which plans, sections, &c. are given in the 

 report. 



4. Occupation. 



Farms small, largest 500 acres ; many of the very small 

 farmers who rent 30/. a year worse off than day labourers. Sir 

 John Sebright, of Beachwood, a scientific breetler, farms 700 

 acres, 300 of which are in arable and well cultivatetl. The 

 Earl of Bridgewater, at Ashridge, farms 5tX) acres, besides the 

 park of 1080 acres. The Marchioness of Salisbury farms '^90 

 acres, besides the park of 1050 acres, and has made many cu- 

 rious experiments ; a prejudice a;^ainst leases. 



5. Implements. 



Plough large and unwieldy, with two large wheels, the same 

 as figured in old farmmg books 150 years ago. One or two 

 threshing machines of Meikle's kind. (."/'tf. 984.) 



6. Enclosures. 



Various, but still some commons and open fields ; old fences 

 of mixed species; new ones of thorn; planting weil under- 

 stood, but the cut with the bill made in a direction downwards 

 instead of upwards, as in Berwickshire, by which the stem 

 throws out a brush of small twigs at the wound, instead of a 

 few strong healthy shoots. 



7. Arable Land. 



By far the greater part of the county in tillage : crops chiefly 

 wheat, barley, and oats ; turnips and clover supposed to have 

 l)een introduced in the time of Oliver Cromwell: depth of 

 ploughing generally four or five inches. Greg, who has written 

 a tract on managing clay lands without naked fallows, ploughs 

 as deep as the staple will admit. Rotations various, generally 

 with a naked fallow, once in three, five, or seven years, or 

 oftener. Combing or ribbing in use i;i some places instead of 

 drilling. Turnips cultivated broad-cast, and very poor crops 

 jwoduced ; the introduction of turnips in this county attributed 

 to Cromwell, who is said to have settled 100/. a year on the 

 farmer who first grew them. Cabbages.'grown to a large size by 

 the Marchioness of Salisbury, for cows ; largeretl sort preferred. 

 C.irrots, parsneps, beets, &o. cultivated by the Marchioness on 

 htr experimental farm. Good sainlfoin on tlie chalks. Drilling 



corn crops with Cooke's drill practised in various placcf . Water- 

 cress for the London market, cultivated in the streams at 

 Rickmansworth. Sixty acres of furze for faggots at Ashridge. 



8. Grass. 



Quantity small, and chiefly a jiarrow margin near Bamet, 



on which hay is grown for the London market ; some good 

 meadows on the Stort. 



9. Orchards. 



Apples and cherries abound in the S.W. comer of the 

 county on farms of fi-om twenty to fifty acres. In ten years 

 after planting, cherry trees begin to bear; produce till t'ne 

 twentieth year, six dozen pounds ; when full grown, fifty 

 dozen pounds; price, ten-pence to three shillings a dozen. 

 Caroon, and small black, the favourite sorts. Kentish will not 

 thrive here. None of the apples for cidtr: orchards kept in 

 grass, but not mowed. 



10. Woods. 



The copse kind abound in the northern and in many parte of 

 the county ; produce faggot wood and hurdles; cut at twelve 

 years; black willow, ash, and hazel, best for hurdles; alders 

 bought by turners and patten-makers. Fine woods, natural 

 and artificial, at the Earl of Clarendon's, the Grove, near 

 Watford. A superb oak at Panshanger, Earl Cowper's ; seven- 

 teen feet round at five feet from the ground ; called the great 

 oak in 1709: on'a soil gravelly above, but, doubtless, clay be- 

 low. The timber in Moor Park of great antiquity, and in a 

 state of decay ; many immense pollards ; and, on the whole, 

 one of the most forest-like parks near London. Vast oaks and 

 beeches at Ashridge and Beechwood. Beech excels there ; alsi 

 cedars and the oak, ash, larch, spruce, and common pine excel- 

 lent. Beech sold to turners, chair-makers, and for barrel staves. 



