Book I. 



AGRICULTURE OF BERKSHIRE. 



ll;39 



tithes were deposited is yet standi nff, anil measures 101 yards 

 In length atid eighteen in breadth. The side walls are only 



tight feet high, but the roof rises to a great hei^t, and is sup- 

 ported by seventeen stone pillars, each four yards in circum- 

 ference. This' construction is obviously judicious; high side 

 walls, unless tied together by cross beams, would have been in 

 danger of being thrust outwards when the barn was filling with 

 corn. This, as we have seen (7788.), is the case with the hand- 

 some high-walled barns of Coke. 



4. Occupation. 



One third of the county occupied by proprietors. Farms of 

 all si^es under 1000 or 1200 acres, but few exceeding 500 acres 

 or under bOl. a year. Character of the Berlcshire farmer stands 

 high. " A hospitable style of living, liberality of sentiment, 

 and mdependence of principle, are characteristic of the Berk- 

 shire farmer ; to which he unites persevering industry and in- 

 tegrity in his dealings, which render him worthy of the comforts 

 he enjoys." {Ur. Jdavor-) 



.'>. Implements. 



The Berkshire waggon, one of the lightest and best imple- 

 ments of the wajjgon kind. The sort of draught chain described 

 and recommended by Gray (2755), is in use on one estate ; " the 

 object is to prevent the draught of the trace horse from pulling 

 down the thiller." The county plough, a clumsy implement 

 wuh wheels; a pressing plough (2714.) recently invented: it 

 has three wheels with the tires wedge-shaped, and is intended 

 " to press in the grips or channels made by the common 

 ploughs, that no hollow places may remain for the seed to be 

 buried too deep," &c. This sort of improvement is usual among 

 amateur agriculturists, who hare one implement invented to 

 correct the faults of another, both of course bad. A number 

 of other inventions, including a curious hand threshing 

 machine, ingenious enough, but quite unnecessary, are figured 

 and described. The Duke of Gloucester has, at Bagshot Park, 

 one of the most complete threshing machines in the empire, 

 which has been arranged under the direction and agreeably to 

 the plan of his present farm manager, Mr. Bumes. Having 

 received a plan of it too late for introduction here, we intend 

 giving it in an appendix, for the benefit of agriculturists in 

 countries where manual labour is dear, and where ruiming 

 water abounds. 



6. Arable land. 



Plough generally wiih four or five horses at a snail's pace. 

 George III. had two farms, one of 800 acres, cultivated in the 

 Norfolk manner, and another of 450 acres, managed in the 

 Flemish manner ; 450 of the former, and 150 of the latter, 

 were arable. The whole delegated to the care of N. Kent, of 

 Craig's Court, land-agent, and author of " Hints to GenUemen of 

 Ltinded Property;' 1790, Kye cultivated on the Royal farms 

 near Windsor, and on the Downs. Some hops, woad, flax, and 

 other plants not usually cultivated ; seventy acres of lavender at 

 Park Place, on the side of a chalky hill, originally planted by 

 General Conway, who distilled it himself at nis coke manufac- 

 tory. As the plants die they are replaced by others from a 

 small nursery plantation- It begins to flower about the end 

 of July, when nearly one hundred women and children are 

 employed in cutting off the flower spikes, which they tie up in 

 bundles, and send to the still-house in baskets, carried by two 

 men. The lower part of the stalks are then cut oft", and the 

 heads are put into the still, and distilled. The chemical oil, 

 being separated, is i>oured into copper jars for sale. 



7. Grass. 



the Thames, from the windings of the river, 105 miles in length, 

 little irrigated, but a good deal flooded afcer heavy rains. 

 Excellent meadows at Keading ; those on the Kennet, over the 

 stratum of peat, of rather a coarse quality. Manuring meadows 

 not general, though they are for the most part mown once a 

 year; upland pastures manured when mown. Herbage, plants, 

 and artificial grasses, a good deal sown. Meadows chiefly fed 

 Ly osen after being once mown. The dairy farmers occupy 



the poorer upland grassy districts, and the breeders of sheep the 

 Downs. 



8. Gardens and Orc/iards. 



About forty jujres of market garden and orchard at Reading, 

 where onions are raised in great quantities ; asparagus for the 

 London and Bath markets, and cabbjige seeds for tne London 

 seedsmen ; good apples there and at other places ; some cider 

 made, and a good many cherries grown for market. Near 

 .Abingdon an orchard of twenty -one acres, containing 541 trees. 



9. Woods and Plantations. 



Extent of AV'indsor Forest, belonging to the crown, 5454 

 acres, including wood and water; private property, called 

 Forest Lands, 29,000 acres; encroachments 600 acres. The 

 forest is under the government and superintendence of a lord 

 warden, who appoints his deputy lieutenant, the rangers or 

 head keepers of the several walks, and the under keepers 

 Great part of the timber on the forest sold, as vrell as that 

 retained, is truly venerable and picturesque in appearance, but 

 rotten or mildewed to the heart in such a way as to be (it onlv 

 for fuel. This rot, or mildew as it is called, seems to he the 

 natural process of decay, and is particularly fatal to beech trees, 

 which are by no means so long lived as the oak, ash, and others. 

 Various young plantations on diflerent estates, especially those 

 of Loveden, Fishe Palmer, Wheeble, &c. Osier beds on the 

 moist parts of the Thames meadows. Extensive plantations 

 have lately been made on the Dukeof (jloucester's demesne at 

 Bagshot, under the direction of his very intelligent managers, 

 Christie, Barnes, and Toward. (See Gard. Mag. vol. vii.) 



10. Improvements. 



An account of the culture of George III.'s farms, by Kent, 

 dated 1798, is given as of the greatest national consequence, &c. 

 Oxen are used both in farm and road-work, and the ploughs 

 are the Norfolk wheel plough and the Suffolk iron plough. At 

 a later period the Rotherliam plough, and with which two 

 oxen, yoked in collars, will plough, on the light soil of the forest, 

 an acre a day. Draining in tlie Kssex manner a good deal 

 practised ; the drains filled with straw, rubbish from brick 

 kilns, wood, cinders, or gravel. 



Peat (uhea is a manure almost peculiar to Berkshire, though 

 they might be obtained by the same process wherever peat of 

 similar quality abounds, and are so obtained in Holland, and 



the ashes extensively used there, and sometimes shipped to this 

 first burnt in Newbury, 



In the year 1745 peat i 

 by a Thomas Rudd, who at the same time spread the ashes on 



ntry. 



clovers, for which they have ever since been famous. An acre 

 of peat land at that period sold for 30/. : it has since sold, 

 according to its quality, for 5(X)/. and 400/., and, in one instance, 

 reached aliout 800/. per acre. Over the stratum of peat, which 

 is about five or six feet deep, is a good meadow soil, and under 

 the peat is gravel. The peat varies in colour, but the blackest 

 is reckoned the best, and is used for firing, the a.shes of Avhich 

 are most esteemed, and have the reddest colour. What i 

 burnt for sale, is mixed with turf and other substances, which 

 gives it a pale whitish hue. It is usually dug with a long- 

 handled spade,from the middle of May to the end of June,and 

 is conveyed from the spot in little wheelbarrows, to a short 

 distance, where it is spread on the ground, and after lying about 

 a week, the pieces are turned. This being three or four times 

 repi-ated, a heap is inade in the middle of the place where the 

 peat is spread, and in the centre of this heap some very dry 

 peat is put, which being lighted, the fire communicates slowly 

 to the rest of the heap. When it is completely lighted, an ad- 

 ditional quantity of peat is put upon the heap, and this oj)er- 

 ation is continued till the whole is consumed, which generally 

 takes a month or six v.-eeks, as quick burning is not approved 

 of. Rain seldom penetrates deep enough to extinguish the 

 fire. The heap is commonly of a circular form, and rather flat 

 at top. At first it is very small ; hut at last it is sometimes two 

 or three yards deep, and six or seven yards in diameter. The 

 ashes being riddled, are conveyed away in uncovered carts, to 

 a distance sometimes of twenty miles, and put into a house, or 

 under a shed, to keep them from the wet, till they are wanted 

 to be put on the ground. 



Tlie ustiut time nf applying:; peat ashes is March and ApriL 

 They are generally taken in carts, and sown on the ground be- 

 fore or after the seed is sown on the land. The quantity ig 

 usually from twelve to fifteen Winchester bushels per acre, 

 according to the soil and crop. It is supposed that too large 

 a quantity would be injurious. For barley, wheat, and peas, 

 they are not in much estimation ; hut for all sorts of artificial 



frass, more especially, they are preferred to all other manures, 

 n turnips they assist to prevent the ravages of the fly ; and in 

 grass seeds the farmers reckon on an acre, manured with ashes, 

 producing nearly a ton of hay beyond what it would have 

 yielded without them. The effect is supposed to be of no longer 

 duration than two years. On meadow land, from fifteen to 

 twenty bushels may advantageously be put; they much improve 

 the grass. 



11. Live Stock. 



No particular breed of cattle; long homed most common. 

 A dairying tract in the west of the vale of White Horse ; much 

 butter mzide, and some cheese of the single Gloucester kind. 

 Calves a good deal suckled in some places. Buscot parish 

 famous for cheeses, in the shape of pine apples ; they are of most 

 excellent flavour, and sell higher than other cheeses. The 

 curds are well worked with tne hands, then pressed into a 

 wooden mould in tl.e shape of a flower pot, and afterwards sus- 

 pended from beams, rafters, or pegs, in an airy apartment, in a 

 net, whose meshes indent their surface like a pine apple. Salt 

 is then rubbed over them, or they :ire steeped in brine ; 

 weight, 51hs. The milk is conveyed from the field to the 

 dairies in what is called a Unkard, drawn by a horse or ass. 



'sAeen, a native breed known as the Berkshire polled, ornotts 

 ( fiir. 992.1 ; strongly marked, but in much less repute than for- 

 merly ; it is now difficult to be met with pure ; they are 

 considered as very hardy, and particularly adapted for the 

 low strong lands, and lor folding. 



Horses of the common heavy black race. Pearce calcu- 

 lated in 1794, that 12,000 horses were kept in Berkshire for 

 the purposes of agriculture, and that one third of the number 

 might be saved by the use of improved implements : most of 

 the horses are bought from the Northamptonshire breeders ; 

 many, after being kept a year or two at work, are sold for 

 the London drays. , , , . . . 



Hogs, the native breed one of the best m Britain ; a cross 



4 D 2 



