1132 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part IV. 



generally kept in flat vessels of lead; some -wooden trays, 

 tinned, in use ; skimmed every twelve hours ; in some few 

 places three times a day ; cream from first two skimmings kept 

 by itself; the third skimming makes what is called after- 

 buttei ; skimming dish, if tin, circular, a foot in diameter, with 

 holes in it, and a handle upon the top of it ; butter made twice 

 a week, in chums of the barrel kind, usually turned by a horse ; 

 time allowed for the butter to come, an hour and a half; butter 

 made up in lumps of two pounds each, and sent to London in 

 square flat baskets, eleven inches deep, holding from thirty-six 

 to 120 pounds. They have each on three of their sides three 

 marks, the number of pounds the basket holds; a letter, 

 denoting the farmer's name from whom it is received, and the 

 name and residence of the carrier. The baskets and butter 

 cloths are the property of the carrier ; all that the farmer has 

 to do is, to carry his butter to the nearest point where the car- 

 rier passes, and to make his agreement with his butter-factor 

 in London, and receive monthly, or otherwise, the payment. 

 Quantity of butter made, six pounds per cow per week, at an 

 average, when in good keep, and not nearly dry. Calves ge- 

 nerally sold to sucklers ; a few suckled in the county, and a tew 

 brought up as stock. 



Sheep, Culture directed to the fattening of lambs, and the 

 l.reetls preferred are the Dorset, and next the Gloucester and 

 Berkshire. ' 



Horses generally soiled ; five or six put to a plough in many 

 places, aud never less than three. A team of asses kept by 

 the Duke of Buckingham for the use of liis garden ; many 

 used at the potteries at Amersliam. 



Hofft, an important article on account of the milk from 

 the dairies ; breed the Berkshire, and next, the Chinese and 

 Suffolk. 



Ducks, a material article at Aylesbury and places adjacent ; 

 breed white, and of an early nature. They are bred and 

 brought up by poor jieople, and sent to London by the weekly 

 carriers. One poor man had before his door a small pit of 

 water, about three yards long and one yard broad : at two 

 comers of this pit are places of shelter for the ducks, thatched 

 with straw ; at night the ducks are taken into a house. In 

 one room belonging to this man (the only room he had to live 

 ill) were on the 14th of January, 1808, ducks of three growths, 

 fattening for the London market ; at one corner, about 



seventeen or eighteen, four weeks old ; at another comer, a 

 brood a fortnight old ; and at a third comer a brood a week 

 old. Ducks six weeks old sold at that time for twelve shillings 

 a couple. Besides the above, there are other persons who 

 breed many more ducks than the person now mentioned, and, 

 as far as it was possible to discover, this person sends 400 ducks 

 in a year to London. Allowing, then, forty persons to send 

 only as many, at an average of five shillings per duck, the 

 return of ducks from Aylesbury alone will amount to 4000/. 

 per annum. This return has been magnified into 20,000i. per 

 annum. 



13. Political Economy. 



Bye-roads extremely bad and dangerous ; difficult to be dis- 

 covered from mere drift ways ; turnpike-roads, not to be com- 

 mended ; canals various and useful ; grain sent to Ix)ndon at 

 two shillings per quarter. Box clubs generally established for 

 the poor ; no agricultural society in Bucks. Principal manu- 

 factures paper and lace. 



It. Miscellaneous. 



In calculating the number of acres. Priest the Heporter tried 

 the mode, first shown by the Bishop of LlandafF, of weighing 

 the -portion of paper containing the map ; he next took an 

 exact copy of Cary's map upon paper, by tracing its outline, 

 after the map was strained upon a canvass blind at a window. 

 This copy was cut out with great exactness by a sharp pointed 

 knife, and then divided into pieces, which were so neatly laid 

 together, as to form a right-angletl parallelogram : another 

 piece of paper was cut into the form of an assumed parallel- 

 ogram longer than necessary, upon which the pieces of the 

 copy were laid, and cemented by gum-water, so as to fill all 

 parts of a right-angled parallelo"gram shorter than that as- 

 sumed ; the dillerence between the assumed parallelogram 

 and that formed by the pieces of the copy of the man, was ac- 

 curately measured and subtracted from the assumed parallel- 

 ogram, and the remainder gave 391,040 acres, the measure of 

 the number of acres in Bucks. Thus then we have the num- 

 ber of acres taken from Cary's map, by weight 396,013, by 

 measure, 391,040. From which, if we take an average, we 

 shall probably state it as accurately as it can be found to be, 

 393,526 statute acres ; which, for the sake of round numbers, 

 we wiil call 393,600 statute acres. 



7784. BEDFORDSHIRE. An irregular parallelogram of 290,000 acres, not much varied in surface, 

 and for the most part of a clayey soil. 'I'he agriculture chiefly directed to the raising of wheat, barley, 

 and beans, but of an inferior description in many respects. Little pasturage ; scarcely any market orchards, 

 but good vegetable gardens established at Sandy, on the east of the county, from time immemorial. Great 

 exertions made in every department of culture by the late and present Duke of Bedford, by whom were 

 employed many valuable men in conducting improvements, as Farey, Smith, Salmon, and Pontey. A 

 valuable set of experiments on grasses, conducted by Sinclair under the direction of the present Duke. 

 {Stone's Bedfordshire, 1794i. Batchelor's Bedfordshire, 1808. Marshal's Review, 1818. Smith's Geological 

 Map, 1820.) 



Water. Principal river the Ouse ; several mineral springs^ 



2. State of Property. 

 Duke of Bedford's estates the largest, next Lord vSt. John's 



and Whitbread's : united rental estimated at 40,000/. a year. 

 Estate managers attorneys and considerable farmers. 



3. Buildings. 

 Several farm-houses were formerly the seats of gentlemen 



who farmed their own estates. Farm-houses in general badly 

 situated, seldom at the centre of the farms to which they 

 belong, and gpnerallv consist of piecemeal erections. Francis, 

 Duke of Bedford, erected an octagonal farm house, on a most 

 ' commodious plan. {.fig. 986.) On the ground floor it con- 



1. Geographical State and Circumstances. 



Climate, mild, genial, and favourable to the growth of ve- 

 getables; rather later than Hertfordshire; prevalent winds 

 S.W. ; coldest winds N.E. 



Soil, chiefly clay, next sand, and lastly in the southern ex- 

 tremity embracing Herts, chalk. Some of the sands grey silts, 

 and producing nothing but heaih, others more loiimy, as' about 

 Sandy, which is supposed to contain the best garden-ground in 

 the coimty. 



Minerals, some ironstone ; limestone abounding with comua 

 aniir.onis and other shel's, petrified wood, gryphitcs belem- 

 ni'.ts; freistone, chiefly lime, at Tattemhoe. 



tiiined ajlirgc kitchen (a), bake and brewhoUse, and wash, 

 house (/>;< a ball or master's room, with a cellar under (c), t 

 good par|)ur (./), a dairy (e), besides a pantry (/), closets, and 



beer and ale cellar under. On the first floor were five, and on 

 the second {Jig. 987.) two good bed-rooms. The expense of this 

 house on the octagonal plan was 671/. ; had it been built in the 



