Book I. 



AGRICULTURE OF MONMOUTHSHIRE. 



1143 



therefore have passed. The stocks are not grafted here till 

 th;ee years after plantiiif; out, and saddle grafting of a pecu- 

 liar kind {.fig. 996.) is pre- 

 ferred to the cleft manner 

 used in Gloucestershire. Some- 

 times the boughs of the stock 

 are each grafted in the whip 

 manner. When cleft-grafting 

 is performed, the cleft is made 

 with a saw, and afterwards 

 smoothed with a knite ; little 

 care paid to the trees after- 

 vards ; they bear at five years. 



996 



are at perfection at thirty, 

 and continue in full bearing 

 1 1 for at least thirty years more. 

 Sheep should be excluded from 

 the orchards, and coarse grass 

 or straw burned in them on 

 the first appearance of a blight ; 

 this fumigation destroys my- 

 riad; of insects. Fruit is ga- 

 thered as it falls from the tree ; 

 no force used till the leaves 

 are mostly fallen, and then 

 only shaking or striking with a light pole. Cider made as 

 in Gloucestershire, but with no great attention to the mixture 

 of fruit, or its previous sweet and clean state. Pomeroy pro- 

 poses to separate tlie core and kernels from the pulp, by forcing 

 a cutting I ylinder through each apple, and then grinding the 

 core and piilp apart, as much of the flavour of cider depends 

 on bruising the seeils. 



9. Woods and Plantations. 



Abundzmce of oak and elm. Croome, Hagley, &c. well- 

 wooded. Forest of Wire, near Bewdley, supplies oak poles, 

 rails, hurdlts, laths, hoops, &c. 



10. Improvements. 



Earl of Coventry drains his park by open cuts wide, and their 

 sides turfed to the bottom ; all the attention they require is 

 preventing the establishment of large weeds or coarse tufts of 

 grass, which would interrupt the water; some embankments 

 on the Severn, and some meadows irrigated^ but mostly by 

 floods. 



11. Live Stock. 



No particular breeds; land too good for breedmg ; feeding 

 chiefly attended to, and some dairying ; some soiling, and a 

 good deal of oil-cake used for finishing autumn-fed oxen. 

 Mules used in agriculture in some parts of the county, espe- 

 cially near Bewdly ; rise to fifteen hands or more ; Skey's 

 carriage mules bred from grey or white mares and a white 

 spotted foreign ass. The great age to which they attain is one 

 of their chief advantages ; at perfection at thirty, and work till 

 seventy or upwards. Asses employed by Carpenter, of Broms- 

 grove, farmer and author. 



12. Political Economy. 

 Principal roads good; cross-roads very bad. A subterranean 



canal near Dudley A road club, established in the vale of Eve- 

 sham in 1792, the members of which bind themselves to become 

 road surveyors, gratis, in their turns, and strictly to enforce all 

 laws, and to take all the means in their power for procuring 

 and keeping good roads. Several canals, fairs, and markets. 

 Manufactures of gloves in Worcester, and also of porcelain and 

 cabinet furniture : of woollen cloth and glass at Stourbridge ; of 

 glass and nails at Dudley ; leather-making from sheep-skins at 

 the same place ; nails, needles, linen,wool-corabing and spinning 

 at Bromsgrove and Kedditch ; tanning in most places ; carpets 

 at Kidderminster ; various iron works on the Stour ; stocking 

 frames at Tewkesbury and Bredon. 



Druittvich salt works on record from 816. The strata over the 

 salt are, mould five feet, marl thirty-five feet, talc, a gypsuni or 

 alabaster, forty feet, then a reservoir of brine twenty -two inches, 

 then talc seventv-five feet, then a rock of salt, into which the 

 workmen bored five fi^t. The brine is inexhaustible ; on 

 boring through the talc, it immediately rises and fills the pit. 

 Salt made here and sold in one year, from April 5. 1771, to 

 Aprils. 1772, 604,579 bushels; of which exported abroad, 

 110,120 bushels. Duty paid into the salt-ofKce, London, 

 61,457/., which was then nearly one third of the whole revenue 

 from salt in England. The process of making salt at Droit- 

 wich is as follows : A little common water is first put into 

 the pan, to keep the brine from burning to the bottom ; the 

 pan IS then filled with brine, and a small piece of resin thrown 

 in to make it granulate fine ; when the brine is boiling, the 

 salt first incrusts at the top, and then subsides to the bottom ; 

 when subsided, the persons employed ladle it out with an 

 iron skimmer, and put it into wicker barrows, each containing 

 about half a bushel, in the shape of a sugar loaf, and let them 

 stand at the side of the pan for some minutes to drain ; they 

 then drop the salt out of^ the barrow, and place it in the stove 

 to harden. In 1775, Baker, a druggist, from London, spent 

 12,000/. in a project for conveying the Droitwich brine in pipes 

 to the Severn, without success. Dr. Nash, from experiment, 

 believes Droitwich salt to be neither manure in itself, nor ca- 

 pable of exciting any vegetative principle on the earth, as animal 

 or vegetable salts or lime may do ; it produces bad effects on 

 ploughed lands, by increasing their dryness in hot weather, and 

 by making them greasy, and what the farmers call raw, in 

 damp weather. He has found it serviceable to scatter foul salt 

 upon lu-ge heaps of manure, to kill weeds and destroy their 

 seeds, but not to enrich ; care must be taken that it be not 

 laid near the roots of the trees, as it will certainly destroy them. 

 If laid at the bottom of pools, it enables them to hold water ; 

 it is wholesome to granivorous and graminivorous animals, but 

 prejudicial to ceornivorous ones. 



13. Means of Improvement. 



The establishment of village and parish libraries recom- 

 mended ; and a paper on the subject copied, which appeared 

 in the Worcester newspaper. From the books recommended, 

 as well as other evidence, the writer of this pajier is Sir 



as well as otner eviaence, ine writer oi tnis paper is Sir 

 Richard Phillips. The plan is excellent, and would probably, 

 in the course of a generation, effect a complete change in the 

 lower classes of society. Le Couteur"s treatise on apple trees and 

 cider, as applicable to the Isle of Jersey, appended to the survey. 



7793. MONMOUTHSHIRE. A surface of 316,800 acres varied by hills, some of which are of con- 

 siderable height ; more distinguished by its woods and its mineral products than its agriculture. A part 

 of the coal basin of South "Wales a fund of wealth of immense consequence to Britain, extends into Mpn- 

 mouthshire, and, with the iron works, forms an important source of industry and wealth. {HassaVs 

 Report, 1811.) 



7. Grass Land. 

 " Some farmers insist on it that rushes shelter and protect 



grass, and will not allow them to be removed by draining or 

 otherwise." 



8. Gardens and Orchards. 

 The latter very general on a small scale; apples for eating 



much in demand at the iron mills ; best orchards and hop- 

 grounds in the hundred of Ragland. 



9. Woods and Plantations. 

 County long famous for the size of its oaks ; stock now much 



diminished. 



10. Live Stock. 

 Mixed cattle; some dairying, but feeding more general; 



Hereford horses a good deal bred ; asses and mules in use about 

 the iron works : the mules found better than horses for carrying 

 charcoal from the woods to the iron works. 



11. Political Economy. 

 Valentine Morris, Esq., of Piercefield, being examined 83 to 



the roads of the county, before Parliament, was asked, 



Q. What sort of toads have you in Monmouthshire ? 



A. None. 



Q. How do you travel then ? 



A. In ditches. 



This was thirty years ago (1800) ; they are now (1830) im- 

 proved, but still bad ; various railways and canals. 



12. Means of Improvement. 

 Leases ; embanking the river meadows ; drainage ; knowledge. 



1. Geographical State and Circumstances. 



Climate. Mild in the vales and cold on the confines of 

 Breconshire, where the snows sometimes remain on the ground 

 till a late period in spring ; atmosphere humid, as in most 

 western counties ; highly favourable to the growth of grass. 



Soil. Clay, loam, and grey soil on rock or marble, and beds 

 of limestone. Caldicot and Wentlog levels on the Severn ; 

 under the court of sewers is a rich silty loam. Soil of the hills 

 a reddish loam. No poor soil in the county. 



Minerals. Coal, iron, and lime. Upwards of twenty iron 

 works in the coal district ; coal not brought into general use till 

 1792, when the canals and rail-roads were completed. Prin- 

 cipal proprietors of the mineral district. Sir Chas. Morgan,' 

 C. Leigh, Esq., B. Hall, Esq., and the Earl of Abergavenny. 

 A particular description of the mineral basin of South Wales 

 given by Martin (P/iiV. Trans. 1806). 



2. Property. 

 Duke of Beaufort and Sir Chas. Morgan the chief pioprie- 



tors ; next class, 1000/. to 3000/. a year ; a third class, 300/. to 

 1000/. a year. Many proprietors occupy a part of their estates, 

 and cultivate them well; some very small proprietors of or- 

 chards and grass lands. 



3. Buildings. 

 Some tine old seats ; farm-houses of the oldest date, timber 



thatched ; new ones covered with tile stone ; seldom any farm- 

 yards; but cattle-houses and bams scattered about at random; 

 cottages on the most frugal plan, generally with a garden. 



4. Occupation. 

 Size of farms, 60 to 300 acres ; 140 



acres about the average ; leases not 

 .very general. 



5. Implements. 

 The proprietors of iron works have 



introduced many improved forms from 

 the north ; very neat iron gates and 

 posts. (Jig. 997) 



6. Arable Land. 

 Less than the pasture ; tillage chiefly 



hy oxen. " Many farmers are so 

 circumstanced, as to be ever on the 

 watch, lest the avarice of their land- 

 lords should interfere with their 



diistry, by taking advantage of any 

 imi>rovement they make in the soil, 

 and unexpectedly raise the rent. That 



such unfair dealing is become too 

 friquent, is much to be lamented, and 

 can only be guarded against by leases.'' 



4 D 4 



