1134 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part IV. 



an acre and a half of Ranlcn -ground, and weed and keep in 

 order twenty-five acres of sward land attached to the house. 

 l"he old women spu flax to make linen for the use of the 

 family ; the other women (exclusive of those engaged in domes- 

 tic concerns), and girls above six years old, make thread lace. 



One-sixth of the earnings of the^oor is paid weekly lo those 

 who work, by way of gratuity. The Governor of the House of 

 Industry adds, that the above employments have answered 



professional rat catchers ; some farmers keep ferrets for the rats. 

 J-arks destroy a great deal of new sown wheat. They, with 

 other binis, are very abundant in IJetUbrdshire, esjiecially about 

 Dunstable, where they are caught in traps, in quantities for 

 tlie [>ondon market. "Wire-worms supposed to be increased by 

 artificial grasses. 



17. Miscellaneous. 



An agricultural society founded by the Puke of Bedford in 

 1801 ; various premiums oflered and paid, to the extent of 

 100/. a year in some years. Cheap publications on agricul- 

 ture, it is tliought, would be a conbiderable means of im- 

 provement. 



tlie most sanguine expectations of tlie directors of the estab- 

 lishment." 

 Many useful benefit clubs. 

 Ifi. Obstacles to Improvement. 



Want of knowledge and leases. Mice generally destroyed by 

 7785, HUNTINGDONSHIRE. A dull flat surface of above 200,000 acres; till Edward the First's 

 time one continued forest. The name of the county is said to be derived from the facility it afforded for 

 hunting. The soil is almost uniformly good, but injured by water; it is chiefly under tillage, but 

 remarkable for no excellence in agriculture. Rape-seed and mustard are more cultivated than in most 

 other comities, and timber more rare. {Stoiu's Huntingdonshire, 1793. Maxwell, 1793. Farkinsoti, 1811. 

 Marshal's Review, 1813. Smith's Geological Map, 1821. Edin. Gax. 1827 ) 



after rape ; hemp sown in a few places ; mustard cultivated 

 with great success : sometimes pays 40/. an acre on land worth 

 not more than 50/., but very uncertain. Parkinson tliinks 



1. Geographical State and Circumstances. 



Climate, tolerably healthy, considering that the east part is 

 skirted by fens, and but a small part supplied by water from 

 sprins 



l/oam prevalent, but the county every where spotted 

 with roundish patches of clay, sand, marl, fen, moor, or lakes, 

 which, in the map of soils annexed to Parkinson's Report, as- 

 sumes a very singular appearance. 



Water chiefly supplied from ponds ; Ouse and Nene the only 

 rivers ; the meres are natural ponds, surrounded by reeds and 

 other aquatic plants, and a considerable zone of marsh or bog, 

 according as the soil may be loam or sand. Whittlesea Mere 

 contains 1570 acres, but is not above two feet deep. It abounds 

 with fish and wild fowl. 



2. State of Property. 



Old enclosed lands in tlic hands of a few proprietors ; half 

 the county freehold, the remainder almost all copyhold. 



3. Buildings. 



Farm-hcuses very inconveniently situated, partly owing to 

 the want of high and dry sites on central parts of farms ; some 

 good cottages lately erected as the only means of retaining farm 

 servants for any length of time with the same master. 



4. Occupation. 



Many large farms, though small ones predominate ; leases 

 frequent ; tithe in kind. 



5. Implements, 



Plough, with one handle, originally from Holland; one wheel, 

 a circular plate of iron which is kept sharp, acts as a coulter. 



6. Tillage. 



Plough, with a pMr of horses, or three abreast; two crops 

 and a fallow the common rotation ; chief crops, wheat, oats, 

 and beans ; rape sown on the fens ; lands either once ploughed 

 out of grass, or pared and burned; also on uplands; manured 

 and treated as turnips ; seed threshed in the field ; straw 

 generally burned, or used for yard fences ; wheat succeeds well 



hemp, flax, rape-seed, and mustard, should be encouraged, a^ 

 they enrich the farmer, and are all good preparatives for 

 wheat. The only way, he says, to enrich the so.l, is to ennch 

 the farmer first. 



7. Grass. 



Some good meadows on the Ouse and Nene ; the pastures 

 lie remote from the farm buildings, but are in general rich, 

 though neglected ; require to be pared and burnt'd, and 

 brovight under aration. 



8. Woods and Plantations. 



A good many pollard willows in the fens, and some osier 

 plantations. 



9. Improvements. 



Great want of a general county drainage, such as that of the 

 Bedford level, in the adjoining counties of Luicoln, Cambridge, 

 and Northampton. Tiie advantages of such a drainage is ably 

 pointed out by Parkinson. Einbarkments very extensive, and 

 the soil being in general a loose porous sand, puddle walls ara 

 generally made in the middle of the mound. 



10. Live Stock. 



Stilton cheese, now chiefly made at I/r.tle Dalby, in Leicester- 

 shire; is no longer made at Stilton, though it is supposed to 

 have been originally made there about 1720; or, accovding to 

 some, by a Mrs. Orton, in 17.>0. A good many horses bred, 

 and a mixture of Lincoln and Leicester ; folding sheep much 

 practised. No fewer than 271 pigeon-houses in tliis county, 

 and a few bees ; one gentleman cultivates rabbits. 



11. Political Economy. 



Bad roads ; a lace manufactory at Kimbolton ; a paper mill 

 at St. Neots ; two sacking manufactories at Staiidground ; an 

 agricultural society at mmbolton. 



7786. CAMBRIDGESHIRE. A flat or little varied surface of 437,040 acres, generally of good soil, 

 and having about one third under tillage; remarkable only for the extent of its fen lands, and their 

 embankment and drainage, both very imperfect. The valley watered by the Cam is called the Dairies, 

 being almost entirelv appropriated to dairy farms. Horses are a good deal bred in the county, and also 

 pigeons. {Vancouve'r's Cambridgeshire, 1195. Gooche's Cambridgeshire, 1807. Marshal's Review, im. 

 Edin. Gax. 1827.) 



1. Geographical State and Circumstances. 

 Climate. On the uplands dry and healthy, but in. the fens 



the contrary ; there the inhabitants suffer most when the fens 

 are driest. Agues have somewhat diminished since the fens 

 began to be better drained". 



Soils are very irregularly distributed ; loam, clay, and rich 

 blr.ck earth extend themselves in irregular masses, and nearly 

 of the same extent. The soil of the fens, is rich, black and 

 deep, and may occupy a third of the whole surface. The rich 

 marshes in the vicinity of Wisbeach consist of a mixture of 

 sand and clay, or silt, a sea-sand, finely pulverised by the action 

 of the ^'Bves ; and the uplands coasist of chalk, gravel, loam, 

 and tender clay. There are no minerals. 



Rivers. The Ouse, the Granta or Cam. The Ouse and 

 Nene also cross part of the county, and the old and new Bed- 

 ford rivers. All these are navigable for barges, and are kept 

 open in frosty weather by ice boats, drawn down the stream by 

 eight horses, four on each side. 



2. Estates. 



Vary much in size. Those of Lord Hardwicke, Duke of 

 Bedford, Duke of Rutland, Sir H. Peyton, and Thorpe, are 

 the largest ; greatest part of the county in estates of from 200/. 

 to 500/. and 1000/. per annum ; many from 20/. to 50/. and 

 even 400/. a year, occupied by their owners ; tenures of all 

 sorts, and a variety of college-land tenures. 



3. Buildings. 



Farm-houses and premises in general bad and inconvenient ; 

 lath and plaster, or clay and wattle, the common materials, and 

 clunch or clay walls in general use. Jenyns, of Bottisham, 

 has adopted Arthur Young's plan of building stacks on frames, 

 which run on an iron railway, and are pulled into the bam, 

 where they are forked on to the platform of the threshing 

 machine. Cottages " wretchedly bad," except a few built by 

 Lord Hardwicke, and some other gentlemen. 



4. Occupation. 



Farms from 20 to 100 acres ; many from 100 to 1000, butfew 

 exceed the latter number ; tithes taken in kind in many places. 



5. Implements. 



Ploughs, with a sharp iron wheel, or running coulter, as in 

 Buntingdonshire. Shepherd, of Chippenham, has invented a 

 ariety of implements. Some threshing machines, and the 

 best Lothian implements, at Lord Hardwicke's. The Ely 

 hear roller is an iron roller, with a number of pieces of iron like 

 small spades fixed into it. It is used in the fenny districts for 

 cutting up the weeds, which choke up the slow running rivers. 

 The horses walk alongthe bank, and draw it several times up 

 and down the river. The weeds are thus rootcd up, and car- 

 ried down the stream by the first flood. 



6. Arable Land. 



Ploughed and cultivated in general as in Huntingdonshire ; 

 hemp IS cultivated more extensively ; flax is grown, and mus- 

 tard, near Wisbeach and Outwell ; a few lentils, as in Hun- 

 tingdonshire, but are considered of less value than tares. The 

 reporter says, a second crop of mustard is obtained by what 

 shells from the first, and that musUrd springs up in land where 

 it has not been cultivated for upwards of a century. Woad is 

 in cultivation, and for every forty acres a woad mill, it is said, 

 is required. No crop pays equal to the reed, which requires 

 no culture but cutting and bunching ; owing to the improve- 

 ment of the fens, they are now becoming scarce. WHiteseed 

 (P6a aqu^tica), or fen hay, is produced on many parts of the 

 fen lands, and even on such parts as have been dug for peat. 

 The land is inundated till the crop appears above the water, 

 and then, wherever it can be effected, it is let off; in other 

 cases the grass grows to a great height in the water, is mown 

 twice in the season, and often produces two tons per acre each 

 time. The hay is esteemed valuable for cows ; causing them 

 to produce much milk, and, it is said, giving the particular 

 flavour to Cottenham cheese. 



7. Grass Lands. 



Extensive ; some under no management, and of little value; 

 others very productive, both as hay and feeding lands. In 

 the district called the Wash, they will carry from one to two 

 bullocks, and from five to twelve Sheep per acre fed the 

 greater part of the year. 



8. Gardens and Orchards. 



Good market and fruit gardens at Ely, Soham, Wisbeach, 

 &c. which supply Lyrm and various places, bj water carriage, 

 with apples, cherries, and veget.ibles. 



9. Woods and Plantations. 



Some young plantations. The Rev. G. Jenyns, of Bottis- 

 ham, " does not cut off the Up roote of oaks in the usual 

 manner, and finds they thrive faster." (That he is mistaken, 

 see 3927.) Osiers are grown in various places for the basket 

 makers, and found to pay as well as any crop. 



10. Wastes and unimproved Fen. 

 In 1794, 158,500 acres. 



11. Improvements. 



In no part of the island draining and embanking so much 

 wanted as in the fens of this county. 



The former state qfihe fen lands, and their degradation to their 

 present state, is given at length in the report, chiefly from a 

 pamphlet by Lord Hardwicke. It was the opinion of Atkins 

 (a conunissioner of sewers in the reign of James I., 1604) that 



