Book I. 



AGRICULTURE OF BEDFORDSHIRE. 



1133 



square form it would have cost 733/. It is built of brick, 

 slated, and was designed by Mr. R. Salmon, a well known 

 mechanist, resident at Wobum. The same accommodations 

 on a square plan forms a house more convenient for jilacing 

 furniture (,/?. 988.) Wattle and dab, that is, clay v'astered 

 on hedge-work of splinters, or on wood frame-work, and also 

 the Pise' manner of clay-working, in use in some places, both 

 for farm-houses and cottages, fise walls found warmer and 

 cheaper than any other, and when whitewashed said to make 

 good cottage walls. 



4. Occupation. 



Many farms of from 200 to 500 acres; average 150 acres; 

 Duke of Bedford's farms generally of the average size. Farm- 

 ers much improved by the example of Woburn and the an- 

 nual meetings. The experiments made by 

 Francis Duke of Bedford were to ascertain 

 the quantities of hay consumed by working 

 oxen ; comjiarison between large and small 

 cattle as to food ; comparative value of 

 different foo<ls, &c. Tithes mostly in lay 

 hands; farms held generally from year to 

 year, some on leases of fourteen or twenty- 

 one years. 



5. Implements. 

 Plough of the swing kind, with a wooden 



board and a wedge nailed on as a mould 

 board, one fixed handle, and a loose one 

 called a plough staff; the whole singularly 

 rude, though in general use throughout the 

 county. Improved forms of all machine's 

 introduced by the Duke of Bedford's North- 

 umbrian manager, Mr. Wilson, and other 

 enlightened men. A good straw cutter 

 winnowing machine, a hay tedder, and also 

 an excellent weighing machine, invented 

 by the late Mr. Salmon, an engineer of ge- 

 nius, resident on the Duke's estate, and em- 

 ploy eel by him as an agent. 



6. Enclosing. 



Formerly three fourths of the county unenclosed, now chiefly 

 enclosed. 



7. Arable Land wretchedly ploughed. 



Fallows, which occur on the clays generally once in three 

 years, badly worked. Usual crops are fallow, wheat, beans, 

 or fallow, barley, beans ; turnips common on the sands and 

 chalks, fown broad-cast, and hand-hoed. Chiccory was tried 

 by the Duke of Bedford, who found it yield ample produce; 

 had twelve acr's which, in 1797, kept six sheep per acre from 

 the second week in April till Michaelmas; four and a half kept 

 ten sheep an acre from the second week in April till '2'2d July, 

 and then seven ner acre to end of October, bheep thrive well 

 and free from diseases. 



8. Grass Land. 



Of very limited extent, and in many places covered with 

 sedge (Carex), and ant-hills. 



9. Gardens and Orchards. 



Oaidens of Sandy and Girtford long celebrated for the ex- 



cellence and abundance of their culinary vegefat)les. Soil a 

 deep sarid, of a yellowish brown colour; products ))eas, beans, 

 cucumbers, potatoes, parsneps, and carrots, radishes, cabbage; 

 plants, and turnips, sent to market in all directions to the 

 distance of sixty miles. Cucumber chiefly to London, and 

 sold at ten and twenty shillings a bushel for nickUng. Orch- 

 ards small. Potatoes, gooseberries, and other small fvuiU 

 grown in cottage gardens. 



10. Woods and I^lantations. 



About 7000 acres, situated on the slopes of hills on cold 

 marly clays. Various new jilantations formed by the principal 

 jirojirietors, especially the Duke of Bedford. Furze grown on 

 some of the sandy lulls, for burning lime. Some fine trees of 

 the silver fir, and others of the genus Piuus at \Voburn, 



planted under the direction of the celebra'ed Miller ; a fine 

 beech, fi L'ured by Pontey in his Forctt Primer. 



n. Wastes. 



Four thousand acres of chalky down at Dunstable, not much 

 any where else. 



12. Improvements. ' 



A good deal drained, especially bogs. Elkington's mode said 

 to have been tried with very partial success. Bush and straw- 

 draining attempted on the clavey soils, and the mole plough a 

 good deal used in the furrows. Irrigation introduced by the 

 Duke of Bedford, and various examples are to be found in 

 ditlerent parishes on his Grace's estates. Peat is used as fuel, 

 and also burned for the ashes as a manure ; ample experi- 

 ments made on manures, by Dr. Cartwright, at Woburn ; but 

 no agricultural experiments on a small scale can be depended 

 on. The dairy at Woburn ififj. 989.) is a fanciful struc- 

 ture in the Chinese style; but the plan and arrangement 

 is not well calculated (at keeping miik and butter coot tmA 



sweet. ' 1 ^ >fr i3/Joi ; /f, ' 



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 I ne.i- ait) V> orffiH Aln&i f'lTiH unnsidiT'i yiinisi 

 9>8^ txott wrJo.rl'Bijri tu.i r.f. rfJon iini:>oboTq bn- 

 J tnbie^ i^^^^ sril nib^tioo ol barndqua f.i riaidw vbnr. 

 'n.io^ 9.1 

 'J' 'jfiot stttif , 9rtoti>frO''t "jnK.- ,\i)-iMiiVf 

 in// ( !rinwq ,^ I tori.' ^^'' 

 'L ri ,-.(^il (lt-:i'' 



13. Live Stock. 



Cattle a mixed breed of long and short homed Alderney, &c. 

 Some dar>irig conducted as in Buckinghamshire. Some 

 sheejj, but"of no particular breed; folding generally practised 

 and approved of; horses a heavy b*eed from Huntingdonshire; 

 rabbit warrens destroyed as much as possible ; geese kept by 

 many from an idea that they preserve the health of the pastur- 

 ing animals where they feed. Turkeys and pigeons kept before 

 the encloeure in various places, but now much on the decline. 

 Bees kept by a few cottagers and small farmers. 



14. Eur at Economy. 



Husbandry business generally performeel by elay labourers ; 

 though on most large farms a horsekeejier, cowkeeper, sliep- 

 herd, and kitchen maid hired by the year. 



15. Political Economy. 



Almost all the cross roads, and many of the main roads, very 

 bad. Grand Junction Caual passes tlurough a part of the 



county, and is very useful ; fairs and markets various ; manu- 

 factures chiefly plaiting of straw and lace; children of ten^ 

 twelve years of age acquire the art of plaitingi while theifi 

 mothers sort and bleach the straw. Lace-making a jnorl 

 sedentary employment, and the women and chi!dre^ generallB 

 api>ear sickly, I'here are schoot-niisrresses for teafctojj imtn 

 straw plaiting and lace-making. Begin to learn to make lace at 



by the business, or nearly six shillings a week ; wprk in sum| 

 mer from six o'clock in the morning till sunset, atiiX in wintef 

 from nine till eleven at night ; maid servants scarce in cons^* 

 quence, but poor rates kept down. Some rush mats made im^ 

 the Ouse to the west of Bedford. y,- 



Beilford Ho ae of Iiuliistry. " The poor in the house are 

 employed in the following manner : A manufacture of coarse 

 baize furnishes em])loyment for all the boys five yeas of age, 

 and some of the men ; the remaining part of the men cultivate 



