152 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part IV. 



any advantaaes by those who live beside them, and constantly 

 use them. Various railways and canals. Manufactures, wool- 

 combing, woollen yarn, worsted, and especially worsted stock- 



7799. DERBYSHIRE. A mountainous and hilly surface of 622,080 acres of great variety of soils, but 

 more remarkable for, its mining and manufacturing productions than its agriculture. It is, however, at 

 the same time both a corn and pasture county, and noted for its cheese ; it is every where full of ingenuity 

 and interest ; and the Report by Farey, in three volumes, is one of the most interesting and valuable of 

 the county reports : it is an example of extraordinary industry, research, and excellent general views, 

 and will be read with great profit by every class of readers. Farey, indeed, was a philosopher ahead of 

 the age in which he lived. {Brown's Derbyshire, 1794. Farey's Agricultural and Mineral Survey, 

 Svols. 1811 to 1815. MarshaVs Rev. \U2.) " * a & y. 



1. Geographical State and Circumstances. 

 Climate. Cold on the hills, but mild in the plains ; in the Tales 



hoar frosts often injurious ; no pievailing winds ; rain about 

 twenty-eight inches per annum. 



Soil very various, chiefly calcareous. 



Mhierals. Lead and iron those chiefly worked ; also some 

 line, calamine, black jack, manganese, sulphur, &c. ; coal, 

 lime, alabaster, slate, freestone, paving stone, rolling, grinding, 

 scythe, and cutlers' stones, and a variety of others, both for use 

 and ornament, as spar, &c. Clay in some districts, as at Over- 

 moor, is burned by S}iadefuls, dried, and mixed with small coals 

 in heaps, for the roads. K. M. Munday, Esq. of Shiplev, formed 

 his private roads of a sort of bricks, rnade without the corners 

 to avoid the duty. 



Water. When scarce, drinking ponds made by puddling and 

 paring in the (iloucestcrshire manner. An artificial pond dis- 

 coverwl in 1808, concealed under peat, the head of which was 



Saddled in the centre ; a proof that puddling is no new art. 

 tone cisterns, placed in the lines of neatly cut thorn hedges, 

 serve to supply two fields : the water brought to them in thin 

 rinc pipes, as being cheaper, and perhaps more durable than 

 lead. 



2. Estates. 



Of various sizes as in other counties ; managed by attorneys, 

 at a low salary, who make it up by law business, and other- 

 wise. 



3. Buildings. 



Chatsworth, Keddlestone, and some other noble stone man- 

 sions in this county ; some good houses, covered with cement 

 (known in London as Atkinson's), made from clay stones found 

 on Lord Mulgrave's estates in Yorkshire, and which Farey con- 

 siders as superior to that made from the clajVialls of the London 

 clay stratum. Grottos frequent, fitted up with the spar of the 

 county. A t A shover a frize of a chimney-piece, representing a 

 section of the strata taken across the parish. At Chatsworth, 

 and various places, the spits in the kitchens turned by water- 

 wheels, of the overshot kind, supplied by small lead pipes. Hair 

 lines, in covered boxes, placed on drying parts, and the lines 

 wound and unwound by a handle, for drying clothes. At several 

 houses foot lath-wheels, turning spindles, on which were other 

 wheels, dressed with emery for cleaning knives; also brush 

 spindles for boots and shoes, as at the Angel Inn, Oxford ; boot- 

 rack, in which boots are reversed on upright pins and taken off 

 by a stick, which prevents dust settling inside the boot. 



Farm-houses as m other counties ; a few good ones recently 

 erected. One of the most complete farmeries is that of the 

 Earl of Chesterfield, at Bretby Park ; it is of hewn stone, slated, 

 and combines a general farm-yard, dairy court, and twopoultry 

 courts, including pheasantries. Buildings in general roofed 

 with grey stone or other slate ; water, in some cases, conducretl 

 down from gutters by a light wooden rod, down which the 

 Tvater runs as well as if it were in a spout or tube, and not 

 blown about by the winds, as it would if no rod were there. 

 Fire-proof floors made by arching them with hollow bricks ; 

 in the cottages, cast-iron ovens by the sides of the fires very 

 common, and also iron cisterns for hot water ; both these 



Cottages better than in most other counties ; some good ones 

 erected by the principal manufacturers and noblemen. \'irgin's 

 bower, or other beautiful flowering creepers, and shrubs, and 

 plants, are not uncommon at the cottage dcors in this county, 

 among other indications of their attention to neatness and of 

 their comforts, compared with the inhabitants of the miserable 

 huts in many other districts. 



4. Occupation. 



Farms generally of small size ; farmers rank higher in intel- 

 ligence than those of most southern counties ; nothing but 

 leases and larger occupations wanting to render this one of the 

 most improved counties of England. Best farmers also at 

 same time manufacturers or miners. 



5. Implements. 



Swing ploughs and pair ; one-horse carts ; good harrows 

 (Jig.lOOj.) ; weeding scissars, for clipping off weeds among com 



1003 



eat from the crib, it is turned half round for them to tread and 

 dung, &c. in the opposite direction, (.fig. 1001.) Tumip-slicers, 

 cliaff-cutters, bruisers, slate cisterns'as milk vessels, &c. 



1004 



close, or rather under ground ; weeding pincers ; threshing- 

 machines ; cast-iron rick standi; cattle cribs mounted on 

 posts, which turn round on a pin, so that when the cattle hnve 

 well trodden the litter on the two opjioiite sides, in standing to 



6. Enclosures. 



In setting out fences, less attention paid to separating the 

 different kinds of soils than is requisite ; walls fre<]uent ; and 

 holes often made in them for passing sheep; to be closed when 

 not wanted by a flat stone; slacked lime plastered on the face 

 of a newly planted hedge (as clay is in Norfolk), to prevent the 

 weeds from rising. V'oung thorn hedges, with a northern 

 aspect, do best, as the morning sun in spring injures the bud of 

 those facing the south when previously covered with frost. 

 Roots of thorns, sometimes planted as sets with success ; old 

 thorn-hedges effectually renewed by cutting off the shoots 

 below the surface of the ground ; the roots then throw up 

 vigorous shoots. Neatly dipt hedges at Ashbourne. Magne- 

 sian, limestone, and marly soils found to suit the holly better 

 than any other. 



7. Arable Land. 



Only one fifth of the county in aration ; formerly six horses 

 were generally employed in ploughing, now only two ; turnips 

 drilled in the Northumlierland manner in various places ; some 

 wheat dibbled ; oats a good deal cultivated, and oat-cakes or 

 Haver (Ger.) cake made, by pouring sour dough on a hot stone : 

 a sprinkling of parsley sown with clover to prevent cattle hov- 

 ing ; sides of oat ricks tucked in with a spade, to leave no loose 

 straws for sparrows to rest on. 



Chanurmile " is cultivated to a very considerable extent on the 

 limestone and cdal strata near Ashover;" the flowers are 

 picked by chi'dren, dried first in the shade and then on a 

 malt-kiln, afterwards packed tight into bags, and sent to the 

 London druggists ; the crop stands three years, and then gets 

 weedy and declines." 



Wo<ul cultivated on a small scale. 



Widiyrv-rvort (Genista tinct6r:a) infests old pastures, and is 

 puUed when in flower, and dried and sold to the dvers. 



Yarrotv (^chill6n Millefolium) is in some places also taken 

 up, tied in bunches, and dried for the dyers. 



Valerian (Ka/eri<ina officinalis^ is grown at Ashover, and also 

 elecampane (i'nula Hel^nium), lavender, peppermint, and 

 rhubarb, on a small scale, in one or two places. 



Trujflet (Tuber cibarium) collected in various plaices, espe- 

 cially under the shade of the beech trees, and on dry hedge ban ks. 

 Koses formerly cultivated for tlie flowers, but not at present. 



8. Grass. 



Three fifths of the county under permanent grasses (though 

 it appears by the marks of ridges to have been formerly every 

 where arable), and the application chiefly cheese-niaking. 

 Droppings of cattle and horseson pastures spread by rakes,which 

 injure the grass less than any other implement. Fern and other 

 weeds collected from wastes, and dried and burned, and 

 their ashes made into balls, and laid aside, to be used as ley for 

 washing. This practice declines with the frequency of enclo- 

 sures. When worms are engaged forming worm-casts in 

 fields, scatter barley chaff, fresh and dry from the winnowing 

 machine, which, sticking to the worms when they come out, 

 prick them, and prevent their return to their holes, till rooks, 

 &c. devour them. 



9. Gardens and Orchards. 



Good market-gardens at all the principal towns, and few of 

 the farm-houses and cottages without gardens. " Samuel 

 Oldknow, Esq. of Mellor keeps a professea gardener, on three 

 acres of rich sheltered land, by the river Goyte, on the Cheshire 

 side of it, who cultivates, gathers, prepares, and delivers all 

 the useful vegetables and common garden fruits in season to 

 his cotton mill work-people and tenants, and renders an account 

 once a fortnight to the mill-agent, who deducts what they 

 have purchased from the garden from their several wages ; 

 the perfection and utility of his arrangement for these purposes 

 cannot but prove highly gratifying to those who wish to see the 

 labouring classes well and comfortably provided for from the 

 fruits of their industry. Proper rooms, for drying, cleaning, 

 and preserving garden-seeds and fruits, and his wool -chamber 

 and other like offices, are attached to the gardener's house, and 



