1136 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part IV. 



7787. SUFFOLK. A crescent-like flat surface of 800,000 acres, the soil chiefly in patches of clay, poor 

 sandy soil, and rich loam, and the agriculture directed to the growing of corn. The county is, however, 

 famous for its breed of cows, horses, and hogs, and it is one of those in which carrots are a good deal 

 grown. One of the largest sheep fairs in the kingdom is held at Ipswich, where it is said as many as 

 150,000 or 2{K),000 sheep and lambs have been exposed for sale. Tlie celebrated Arthur Young was a 

 native yeoman of the county, and farmed his own estate near Bury. ( Young's Suffolk, 1810. Smith's 

 Geological Map, IBly.) 



1. Geographical State and Circumstances. 

 Climate. One of the driest in the kingdom ; the frosts severe ; 



and the N. E. winds in sjiring, sharp and prevalent. 



Soil. The predominating a strong loam on a clay-marl bot- 

 tom in the centre of the county ; chalk also occurs extensively 

 as a substratum ; a zone of sand stretches along the coast; 

 and some sand and fen land in tlie north-west angle; no 

 minerals. 



2. Property. 

 Chiefly in the hands of rich yeomanry, who cultivate their 



own estates of from 100/. to 400t. a year ; one estate of 1500/. a 

 year ; and two or three of 10,000/. 



3. Buildings. 

 Great erections have been made for the convenience of men 



of lar^e fortunes ; but not so many for those of smaller incomes ; 

 farm-houses improved, but still inferior to what they might be ; 

 often of lath and plaster, and wanting requisite repairs ; barns 

 uselessly large ; cottages in general bad habitations ; the door 

 generally opens from the external air into the living room ; 

 reparation bad, and the deficiency of gardens general. 



4. Occupation. 

 Farms generally large; some from 20/. to 100/. a year; 



generally fiom 150/. to 900/. ; the largest on the sandy districts. 

 Leases for seven, fourteen, and twenty-one years; but little 

 land held at will. 



5. Implements. 

 The SutTolk swing plough, though known as one of the best 



of the old English swing ploughs, is now giving way to im- 

 proved forms ; various threshing machines, and other improved 

 implements introduced ; circular harrows ifig. 990.) were used 

 on the farm of the late celebrated Arthur \ oung. 



6. Encloswes. 



SuHolk one of the earliest enclosed counties in England ; a 

 few recent enclosures. 



7. Arable Land. 



Plough, with two horses, one acre a day on stiff soils, and one 

 and a quarter to one and a half on sands ; ploughmen skilful, 

 and subscribe prizes among themselves for such as draw the 

 straightest furrow, &c. Besides all the common crops, a larger 

 proportion of peas grown than is usual in most counties. Hops, 

 cabbages, carrots, lucerne, chiccory, and hemp, are grown in a 



few places. The culture of carrots is, of course, confined to the 

 sandy districts, and that of rape for seed, and of hemp, to the 

 fenny angle of the county. A. Young seems to have been the 



chief cultivator of chiccory, ha ving had " ninety acres of it for 

 sheep." Hemp is grown both by cottagers and farmers, and for 

 the seed as well as fibre, but never on a large scale ; live acres 

 is the greatest breadth to be met with. 



8. Grass. 



Pastures coarse and not extensive ; both these and meadows 

 badly managed, overrun with mole and ant hills, bushes, tufts 

 of bad grasses, weeds, &e. Hay-making badly performed. 



9. Gardens and Orchards. 

 Garden walls built of the width of a brick, by making them 



wavy. {Encyclopa-dia of Ganlenitii;, 1567.) 



10. Woods ajid Plantations. 

 Few, and pay badly ; but large oak timber formerly produced 



in the clay districts. 



11. Improvements. 

 Wheat substituted for rye. Draining much practised on the 



clays; bushes, straw, or stubble used for hlling them; claying 

 and marling the sands practised, but sand laid on clay found of 

 no use, or marl on clay, according to the old Eidage 

 Marie clay, throw all away ; 

 Marie sand, and buy land. 

 Some workmen procured from Gloucestershire to execute 

 irrigations in the manner of that county. 



Y2. Live Stock. 



In cows, horses, and hogs, Suffolk excels. The Suffolk 

 breed of cows spread over the whole county. To keep the 

 breed polled, homed calves are never reared, but sold to the 

 sucklers. Cows in prime give eight gallons of milk per day, 

 and groat part of the sezison six g<illons ; best milkers red brin- 

 dle, or yellowish cream coloured; not always the best feeders. 

 Often fed in winter with cabbages. A point of bad management 

 is, that the bulls, when three years old or thereabouts, are 

 either sold or castrated for fatting, by which means, when a 

 good stock-getter is thought to be discovered, when searched for 

 he is no more ; thus no improvement can be made in the breed, 

 but by accident. Cows are allowed to range over turnip fields 

 and eat where they please, and often the same as to cabbages. 

 In some cases they are tied to posts in the open field, littered, 

 and the vegetables brought to them ; both barbarous modes d 

 management. Dairy management not particularly good ; wo- 

 men in general the milkers; milk generally seven or eight 

 cows an hour; one for a wager milked thirty in three hours. 

 Qualitv of milk depends not only on the food, but on the con- 

 dition of the cows as to health and fatness. Chafing dishes of 

 charcoal kept in the dairies during firost, but the cream does 

 not rise so well. Butter generally salted in firkins. 



The sheep used are of various breeds, and the practice of 

 folding is universal. 



Horses of the best variety found on the sandy soils, as about 

 Lowestoff, Woodbridge, Orford. About the middle of last 

 century, a considerable spirit of breeding, and teains drawing 

 against teams for large sums, existed. The old breed were 

 "Sb'j with slouching ears, ill shaped head, and low in the fore 

 end ; a great carcass, short legs and short back ; they could 

 only walk and draw, and no more trot than a cow ; of late, by 

 aiming at coach horses, the breed has become handsomer, and 

 one of the best for draujjht in England. In the east district, 

 horses are turned out of' the stable in winter at night, about 

 eij,'ht o'clock, into a yard well littered with straw, with plenty 

 of onen and barley straw to eat, but no hay; so treated, they 

 are found to keep free from diseases, and work several years 

 longer than if kept constantly in stables. 



The liof^s fatten early and at little expense, but are not great 

 breeders. 



Rabbits. Many warrens in the sand district ; one at Bran- 

 don returns 40,000 rabbits in a year; twenty rabbits per acre 

 usual produce; carcass defrays rent and taxes, and the skin 

 profit ; so that no mode of farming can be more profitable to 

 the occupier. 



Poultry. Turkeys generally cultivated, but chiefly for home 

 us^. 



Pi(S,'<"K abound on the borders of Cambridgeshire. 



13. Political Economy. 



Roads very good ; made with flints and gravel ; some canals. 

 Ipswich and" Bury excellent markets; a good deal of fishing on 

 the coast; spinning and combing wool, and spinning and 

 weaving hemp, among the cottagers. Says and silk manufac- 

 tures at Sudbury. Various hundreds in this county incori)or- 

 ated by charter for erecting houses of industry for the poor ; 

 they manufacture netting for the fishers, sjiin, &c., and cul- 

 tivate a few acres of land ; they are admirably kejit and 

 managed, and the poor live like the pensioners in Chelsea 

 college ; but these houses of industry have little effect in lower- 

 ing the poor rates. The best managed are of very expensive 

 tendency, and of equivocal eflect as to comfort and morality. 

 Those badly managed are nurseries of idleness and vice, 

 attended with great discomfort and expense. Marshal con- 

 siders them as the grave of morality and independent policy, 

 and as we are informed, by a gentleman who has been a director 

 of one of them for many years, with perfect truth. 



14. Obstacles to Improvonent. 



The great abundance of game in the county is such, that in- 

 stances are given of com having been injured to the extent of 

 half and three fourths of its value by hares and ]>heasants, 

 which arc common every where, and on the sand district more 

 especially. 



An agiicultural society, called the Milford society, meets al- 

 ternately at Milford and Bury. 



7788. NOHFOLK. A flat surface of 1,288,000 acres, chiefly of a loamy and sandy soil, and devoted to 

 the growth of corn, and the fattening of cattle and sheep. This county has acquired celebrity for its ge- 

 neral culture, and e.<!peciaHy for that of turnips and clover. It displays a great variety of practices, and 

 abounds in wealthy formers. It is also noted for the estate of Coke, a true and cocsistent patriot for 

 upwards of half a century, the most munificent of landlords, and the greatest friend to farmers. Norfolk, 

 in short, was formerly reckoned the finest county in England for agriculture, as Northumberland is at 

 present. Mackie's nursery at Norwich, the property and under the direction of a lady, is one of the most 

 extensive and best managed of provincial nurseries. {Ketit's Norfolk, 1795. Young's Norfolk, 1801. 

 Marshal's Review, 1813. Dr. Rigby's Holkham, its Agriculture, &c. 1819. Smith's Geological Map, 

 1819. Edin. Gax. Wl') 



