1156 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part IV. 



rough to Lincoln, afforded a navigaUon of the utmost conse- 

 quence to this fertile country. 



Some irrigation ; and warping, on the Humber, where, as 

 already described (4444.), it was invented. 



9. Livestock. 



More attended to in this county than the culture of corn. 

 The Durham short-homed cattle are preferred, but any sort 

 fatten well, and there is little dairvin;;. 



Sheep. County carries one sheep and an half per acre at an 

 average. Lincoln breed preferred ; Leicester much tried, and 

 crosses between them frequent ; upon inferior land the Leices- 

 ter preferred, as fatting easier ; since the enclosure no folding ; 

 several ram societies. 



Horsei, of the heavy black kind a good deal bred both for 

 carts and coaches ; in various places saddle horses also ; some 

 inter in open sheds, with 

 I go out and in at pleasure. Ground- 

 sel eaten, said to cure the grease ; oats malted in salt water 



given for three -weeks or a month, found preferable to spring 

 physic. 



Rabbits. Several warrens on the wolds. 



Geese formerly much kept in the fens, and plucked four or 

 five times a year. " The feathers of a dead goose worth six- 

 jience, threa giving a pound. But plucking alive does not 

 yield more than three-pence per head, per annum. Some 

 wing them only every quarter, taking ten feathers from each 

 goose, which sell at five shillings a thousand. Plucked geese 

 pay in feathers one shilling a head in Wildmoor fen. 



10. Political Economy. 



Roads in many places made of silt ; " dreadfully dusty and 

 heavy in dry weather : on a thaw or day's rain like mortar." A 

 number of canals, and, as already observed (3802.), the first in 

 England, made from Lincoln to the sea. A fabric of brushes 

 and sacking at Gainsborough ; flax spun in various places. An 

 agricultural society at Falkingham, established in 1796. 



7802. RUTLANDSHIRE. 91,000 acres, resembling in soil and surface the uplands of the adjoining 

 county of Lincolnshire. The western part of the county is under grass, and the eastern chiefly in aration. 

 The soil is almost every where loamy and rich ; and the agriculture partaking of that of Lincolnshire and 

 Leicestershire. The operative classes seem more comfortable in this county, and more humanely treated 

 by the proprietors and farmers, than in many others. The Earl of Winchelsea has made great exertions 

 to this effect. [Crutchley^s Report, 1794. Parkinson's General Review, 1808. Marshal's Revieiv, 1812.) 



1. Buildings. 



Some comfortable cottages built by the Earl of Winchelsea, 

 Containing a kitchen, parlour, dairy, and co- -house, &c. with 

 two bed-rooms over. 



Others for three cows, and with a calf-house, piggery, dairy, 

 kitchen, living-room, and two bed-rooms over. 



A third sort for operatives without a cow, containing a 

 kitchen, pantry, closet in the stair over, and two bed-rooms, 

 one with a tire. Several with small farms of from five to 

 twenty acres attached, (jig. 1007.) 



1007 



2. Arable Lands. 

 Generally better managed than in Lincolnshire, and very 



productive. The barley said to be of very superior quality. 



3. Pasture. 

 Chiefly upland. The custom of letting part of it to labourers, 



and also of taking in labourers' cows at so much per head, pre- 

 vails, and is encouraged hy the Earl of Winchelsea. 



4. Several Orchards. 

 In several places the cottagers take small portions of fields 



from the farmers to use as gardens. At one place, three acres 

 and a half is divided into fourteen gardens ; and at Oakham, a 

 field of three acres is divided into twenty-four gardens, and let 

 at five sliillings per garden. 



.5. Improvements. 



Parkinson, one of 'the reporters, and a man of sound judg- 

 ment, has altered his opinion on the subject of irrigation, and 

 says, it is now in conformity with that of a correspondent who 



7803. NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 617,600 acres of billowy surface, rich in woodlands and pasture 

 lands, but much behind in the culture of corn. The soil is almost every where excellent ; and by the 

 introduction of good husbandry, the marketable produce of the county might be amazingly increased. 

 {.Donaldson's Report, 1794. Pitt's Report, 1806. Marshal's Review, 1812.) 



thus writes to hlra : " In my opinion watering renders the 

 quality of the herbage and the land the worse for the process. 

 Where land is tolerably productive, and in a situation where a 

 quantity of grass food is not required, I should certainly not 

 advise it. I tliink the land may be turned to better account 

 without it. But I think there are many situations, particularly 

 on gravel, sand, or open soils, where it may be very advantage- 

 ous ; the produce, by such means, is certainly much increased, 

 and, in some instances, rendered larger when very little other- 

 wise would be produced. Though the produce is increased, 

 yet it becomes in time, in a few years, of so coarse a nature, and 

 mixed with rushes and plants, that cattle frequently refuse to 

 eat it ; and when it is eaten, the appearance oi the cattle pro- 

 claims it far from being of a nutritious nature." He adds, " I 

 was formerly an advocate for irrigation, and am still on such 

 soils as are described in the above extract ; but having had since 

 opportunities of viewing several water meadows which have 

 been of long standing, which have operated to the disadvantage 

 of both the herbage and land, I have been obliged, in a great 

 measure, to alter my opinion." 



6. Live Stock. 



Not much brec-ding, but chiefly feeding. P. considers that 

 much depends on the application to fallow, and is of opinion, 

 that the large Durham ox did not eat more food to raise him to 

 that enormous size, than some others would to bring them to 

 half the size or weight at the same age. Nor is it at all probable 

 that Lambert, of Leicester, who arrived at such an astonishing 

 weight, had eaten more food than Powell, the celebrated 

 pedestrian, who was a very thin man. An animal for tbe 

 shambles is seldom too large if he has an aptitude to fatten : 

 and much depends on the constitution of an animal in this 

 respect. 



A good plan for washing sheep at Burleigh ; but not so sim- 

 ple as the Duke of Bedford's. 



Horses of a very heavy, slow, unprofitable sort are raised in 

 the county. 



Of bees, 1176 hives kept by the cottagers. 



7. Political Economy. 

 "The Leicestershire and Rutlandshire Agricultural Society 



established in 1806, meet at Melton Mowbray and Oakham 

 alternately. Less wjmt of knowledge in this county than in 

 most others. 



1. Geographical State and Circumstances. 



Climate. Favourable both to health and vef;etation ; exempted 

 from deep falls of snow and long-continued rains ; highest point 

 in the county supposed about 800 feet above the level of the 

 S'a, and there is neither mountain nor bog. Donalilson found 

 that wheat harvest generally commences here about a fortnight 

 earlier than in Perthshire. 



may be classed as strong and deep loam, light thin reddish soil, 

 thin light clay, and fen and meadow. 

 Minerals. Clay, limestone, marl, freestone, and slate. 



2. Property. 



Almost wholly in large estates ; thirtv-seven of or above 3000/. 

 a year, half of which are from 3000/. to 10,000/. ; managed by 

 stewards. 



3. Buildings. 



Althorpe, Burleigh, and Castle Ashby, noble mansions. 

 Farm-houses " as badly constructed as improperly placed ; " 

 built of stone or brick, and covered w ith slate or straw ; farmers 

 and their farmeries crowded together In towns and villages ; 

 cottages of mud and thatch. 



4. Occupation. 



No large farms ; 130 acres the average of open fields, and 

 200 the average of inland farms ; few or no leases. 



5. Implements. 



" Plough a clumsy piece of work, with a long massy beam 

 and timber mould, being drawn by four or five horses in a 

 line." Donaldson says, a small plough, with two horses abreast, 

 will make better work ; but Pitt (who seems to know very 

 little of the matter) joins with Smith of Tuchmarsh, who 

 says, " I have heard and read much on the subject, and tried a 

 great variety of ploughs ; but it is ridiculous to assert that two 

 horses can plough abreast in almost any part of this county. I 

 have met with no ploughs which serve so well(!) or run so easy 

 a'i the ploughs in common uses." So much for the ignorance 

 and presumptiou of Farmer Smith, and the prejudiced 



opinions of Pitt the reporter. A ribbed or plated roller, 

 formed bv letting in sixteen bars of iron lengthways of the 

 roller, is found preferable either to a spiky or smooth roller for 

 breaking clods. 



6. Arable Land. 



Fallow, wheat, and beans, the common rotation, but others, 

 which include turnips and clovers, beginning to be introduced 

 on the light lands. Most of the other plants in cultivation tried 

 by amateurs or others. Woad cultivated by two woad growers, 

 who live in the county ; it requires rich old pasture land, for 

 which the woad grower pays the landlord from 61. to 71. per 

 acre, per annum, for two or three years, the farmer being com- 

 pellecl to give it up for that term, and to take to it again after- 

 wards at the old rent. Tiie land is ploughed early in spring, 

 well harrowed, and sown broadcast, as thick as j^ain, by hand- 

 fuls; a great tlal of harrowing and dressing is necessary to 

 bring it to fine tilth. When the plants appear, they are hoed, 

 and kept perfectly clean, in a garden style of cultur-, and the 

 crop appears soniewhat like a broadcast crop of spinach ; the 

 leaves are gathered by hand, in baskets, three times in a season 

 (except a plot sometimes saved for seed), and carted to a mill, 

 where they are ground to a pulpy mass, by vertical wheels, 

 crossed with iron plates, and moved round by horses : this 

 pounce, or jelly, is then formed into balls, by hand, and dried 

 on hurdles, in a shed ; these balls are afterwards broken up, 

 and fermented, and finally dried in small lumps, somewhat re- 

 sembling horse-dung in colour and appearance; it is then 

 packed up in casks for use. 



Onions cultivated to great perfection about Northampton; 

 220 quarters known to have been sent to Daventry fair at one 

 time. 



Tobacco cultivated by some fcirmers for the purpose of dress- 

 ing sheep for the scab. 



Furze m a few places for oven-fuel. 



7. Grass. 



Supposed to cover 375,000 arres ; 40,000 acres in meadow, 

 on the borders of the Nen and olher rivers. One farmer says, 

 " A great improvement.on all mowing meadows, incapsble of 



