1148 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part IV. 



12. Live Stock. 



Cattle of mixed breeds : some dairying, chiefly for butter to 

 the manufacturing towns ; some cheese, but not very good. 

 Calves raised as stock, and sometimes suclcled for veal. Sheep 

 in breetling flocks of various kinds. Stock in general neg- 

 lected af to improvement ; all sorts of crosses i)erinitted, so 

 that the original breeds of sheep and hogs are now lost. Pork 

 and bacon are much used among the poorer people, when they 

 can procure them ; therefore the sort which is to be fed with 

 the least trouble is to be preferred. A mixture of the Shrop- 

 shire and Chinese has, in this respect, been found to answer 

 for bacon, and a cross of the wild breed for pork. 



Geese, reared on the commons, and sold to farmers, who fat- 

 ten them on their stubbles. 



Turkeys, reared in large quantities by some farmers, and 



sold tohielers, who drive them to Birmingham and other large 

 towns. Markets in general well supplied with fowls. It is to 

 lie lamented that they are generally carried alive to market. 

 Death is no misfortune to an animal that has no previous ap- 

 prehension of it. But poultry, carried in bags or baskets to 

 market, have several hours of previous suffering, and the bur- 

 den and trouble of carrying them thither seem much in- 

 creased thereby. 

 13. Political Economy. 



Roads generally bad ; various canals ; trade of Shrewsbury, 

 flannel, and Welsh webs, used for clothing for the slaves in the 

 ^Vest Indies and South America. Manufactures in the 

 county numerous ; iron, pottery, porcelain, glass, dyeing cloth, 

 woollens, flannels, linen, gloves, &c. An agricultural society 

 at Drayton. 



7796. STAFFORDSHIRR 765,000 acres of hill and dale, some parts rugged and others smooth, but 

 on the whole more a mining and manufacturing than an agricultural county. The Marquis of Stafford, 

 Lord Anson, and the Marquis of Anglesea, are the chief improvers. Excellent markets for produce within 

 the county in consequence of the numerous manufacturing towns and villages. {Pitt's Report, 1808. 

 MarshaVs Review, 1815. Loch's ImprovemeTUs, 1819. Edin. Gaz. 1827.) 



1. Geographical Stale and Circumstances. 

 CUmtUe. Air sharp and cold, and inclining to wet ; annual 

 rains thirty-six inches ; those of London twenty or twenty-one 



inches ; of^Upminster, in Essex, nineteen inches and a quai ter ; 

 Lancashire forty -two; of Ireland forty-two to fifty. Annual 

 rain on tlie west side of the kingdom double that on the east 

 side. 



Surface. In the north side of the county hills arise, forming 

 the commencement of a ridge, rising gradually higher and 

 higher into Scotland, under different names : here called 

 Moorlands, then Peak, then Blackstone Edge, then Craven, 

 then Stanmore ; and then, parting into two horns, called 

 Cheviots. 



Soil. Very various ; about one third of the county strong 

 loam or clay ; one third mixed soils of almost all sorts, and the 

 remainder light, calcareous or alluvial ; no chalk. 



Minerals. Valuable and extensive ; 50,000 acres or upwards 

 of coal. Iron ore and lime of unknown extent. 



2. Property. 



Largest estates lO.OOW. a year, and many of all sizes, from 

 that amount down to 40*. a year. Attorneys generally the ma- 

 nagers, but some excellent examples of gentlemen of from 

 .OOO/. to 5000/. a year managing their estates themselves ; re- 

 siding on them, and cultivating a part, and giving every en- 

 couragement to their tenants. 



3. Buildings. 



Some noble mansions, as Trentham, Beaudesart, Ingestree, 

 fiC. Excellent farm-houses constructed on some estates, as 

 Trentham , Lord Stafford's; but the majority ,as in other counties, 

 bad, and badly situated. A farm-yard has been constructed at 

 the family seat of the Ansons, for a demesne farm of 2000 

 acres. It was built by S. Wyatt, of London, and consists of the 

 farming steward's house at one end ; a range of building along 

 one side contains a brewhouse upon a large scale, a water corn- 

 mill for the family and farm use, and in which corn is ground 

 for the neighbouring poor gratis, and a malt-house : the oppo- 

 site side and end are occupied by stalls for feeding cattle, store- 

 rooms, stables, and other appendages ; and in the middle of the 

 yard is a very complete hoggery, built of large stones set edge- 

 ways, and covered with slate, with a boiler for heating hog- 

 foocl, a cold bath supplied by the mill stream, for giving an oc- 

 casional swill to the young pigs. In this building a number of 

 hogs r.re fatted on dairy refuse, boiled roots or vegetables, 

 j>ulse, ground barley or bran, supplied by the mill near at 

 hand. At some distance above is the stack-yard and bams, 

 where a powerful threshing-machine is worked by the same 

 stream that afterwards supplies the garden, and turns the com 

 mill in the farm-yard. 



4. Occupation. 



Farms of all sizes, from twenty-five to 500 acres ; many con- 

 solidated since 1795. Some very good cottages with gardens, 

 and containing comfortable and commodious accommodation 

 for agricultural or manufacturing operatives. A specimen of one 

 is given [fig. 1002.),which contains a living-room(a), working 

 or lodging room (A), pantry, dairy, cellar, &c. (c), cow-house (</), 

 with a water closet, and three bedrooms over. Leases generally 

 granted for twenty-one years. Little made by farming unless 



1002 



with a combination of all, or most of the following circum- 

 stances: First, an easy rent ; second, a pretty good and extensive 

 farm ; third, economy and industry ; and fourth, length of time. 

 In the present system of farming, at a moderate rent, the writer 

 of this knows from experience, that it requires not only the 

 most diligent industry", but also the most prudential economy, 

 to keep the balance on the right side. To which Marshal adds, 

 " I have rarely found a farmer making a fortune by his profes- 

 .sion alone, unless on fresh land, on virgin marsh, old gra/.ing- 

 ground, ancient sheep-walk, or well soiled common ; a fortune. 



I mean, any way resembling that which, with the same ability 

 and industry, and with a small share of the outset capital. 



5. Implements. 



Very various ; double furrow-ploughs drawn by four horses, 

 a ^ood deal in use in the light lands. Excellent threshing-ma- 

 chine, and various new implements introducing by proprietors, 

 and especially by the Marquis of Stafford. 



5. Arable Land. 



Most annual field-crops cultivated, including hemp and flax. 



7. Grass. 



Meadow on the rivers and brooks, and artificial grasses 

 sown ; feeding in general preferred to dairying. 



8. Gardens and Orchards. 



Common to many farm-houses ; but few or no sale orchards, 

 and scarcely any fruit crushed for liquor. 



9. Timber and Woodlands. 



Best-timbered estate Blithfield Park, Lord Bagot ; the park 

 contains many hundred trees of extraordinary bulk, containing 

 from 200 to 400 feet of timber each ; much of it is mentioned by 

 Dr. Plott as full grown in 1686. Chillington and Beaudesart 

 also remarkably well timbered. The remains of Needwood 

 forest, chiefly remarkable for its beautiful hollies. On the 

 whole the country abundzmtly wooded. Sneid's coppices cut 

 once in six years to make crates and large hampers for the 

 potteries. 



10. Improvements. 



Irrigation and draining practised, the former only to a mo- 

 derate extent. Jessop, the engineer, suggests that nine parts 

 in ten of the waters of the kingdom at present run away in 

 waste, a great part of which might be usefully employed ; nay, 

 further (putting expense out of the question ), that every stream 

 in the kingdom may be made to run equally through the whole 

 year. This position, however extraordinary, is easily demon- 

 strable ; for if, upon any given stream, one or more reservoirs 

 be made, capable of containing its flood water, and through the 

 dam or dams be lEud a pipe or pipes, whose apertures will just 

 discharge the average produce, the business is done : and 

 though there may be no probability of this business being ever 

 brought to so great a nicety, yet from hence some idea may be 

 formed of the prodigious extent to which improvements by 

 water may be carried. 



Great and radical improvements have been effected on the 

 Trentham estates. 'I'he first object was the laving the lands 

 together, in farms of considerable extent, varying in size ac- 

 cording to the nature of the soil, and other circumstances. In 

 effecting these necessary changes, wherever the old tenant was 

 removed, which was done as seldom as possible, he was, unless 

 he took a farm elsewhere, accommodated with his house and 

 his best grass crofts for his life, at a low and inadequate rent ; 

 and in every case where it was possible to treat with the person 

 beneficially interested in the lease, and whose continuance in 

 the farm was incompatible with the new arrangement of the 

 land, his interest was purchased either for an annuity or a 

 sum of money, to enable him to look out for, and to stock a new 

 farm. The size of the farm being thus enlarged, it was neces- 

 sary to enlarge the size of the inclosures, and to lay several 

 closes into one, and, where possible, to give them a more regu- 

 lar and uniform shape. This arrangement enabled the land- 

 lord to get rid of the long useless lanes, by which a considerable 

 addition to the number of arable acres was acquired. 



In order to give each tenant every advania/je in draining his 

 farm, the great lines of ditches were executed by the land- 

 lord; and wherever it was possible, these were made the 

 boundaries of the farms. Thus the whole drains on the es- 

 tate were conducted according to one uniform plan, by which 

 the system of drain.-<ge was rendered much more complete, 

 and the interests of the whole, and not that of any individual 

 tenant, were consulted, nor was any one allowed 'to interfere 

 with tlie interests of his neighbour. Such a perfect system will 

 have the effect of rendering the condition of these estates more 

 complete in this respect than that of any other in England. 

 Attention has also been paid, in the execution of these works, 

 to make the water available tor the construction of water-mea- 

 dows, and for impelling the threshing-machines of the respec- 

 tive forms. 



In conse<juence of the complete state of ruin in which the 

 farm buiUlings on these estates were found, it was necessary to 

 incur a serious expense in constructing new ones. In this way 

 it has been necessary to erect thirty-seven new, and to repair 

 throughout eight other, extensive sets of farm offices, besides 

 the smaller repairs which such estates necessarily require. 

 They have been executed in the most substantial manner. 

 They are built of the best possible brickwork, covered with 

 tiles or slates ; and their cost, including the expense of those 

 thoroughly repaired, may, on an average, be stated at from 

 1500/. to 1600/. each. 



We have already given examples of these buildings (2955. 

 and 2957.), which are remarkably complete in design, and sub- 

 stantial in execution ; and several of Uiem are furnished with. 



