Book I. 



AGRICULTURE OF CUMBERLAND. 



1161 



4. Occupation. 



Farms generally large In the north, some from 'iOO/. to 400/. 

 a jear ; in various parts farms from 50/. to 100/ , and from 100/. 

 to 1000/. or 1500/. a year. The capital necessary 

 for such farms entitles the farmers to a good edu- 

 cation, and gives them a spirit of independence 

 and enterprise, that is rarely found amont'st the 

 occupiers of small farms and short leases. Their 

 minds being open to conviction, they are ready to 

 try new experiments and adopt every beneficial im- 

 provement that can be learned in other districts ; 

 for this purpose, manv of them have traversed the 

 most distant parts of the kingdom to obtain agri- 

 cultural knowledge, and have transplanted every 

 practice they thought superior to those they were 

 acquainted with, or that could be advantaf;eously 

 pursued in their own situation , and scarcely a 

 vear passes without some of them making exten- 

 sive agricultural tours, for the sole purpose of 

 examining the modes of culture, of purchasing or 

 hiring the most improved breeds of stock, and 

 seeing the operations of new invented and more 

 useful implements. 



5. Implements. 

 Of the most approved kind ; and some of these, 



as the plough, drill, horse-hoe, &c. owe their chief 

 merits to the improvements of Bailey. A pair of 

 pruning shears recommended as preferable to 

 those in common use for cutting hedges. They 

 consist of a strong sharp knife, six inches long, 

 moving betwixt two square-edged cheeks; the 

 upper handle is two feet six inches long, and the 

 other two feet three inches. (See Encfjclopaedia 

 <jf Gardenittf;, 2ded. 1334..^^. 122.) 



6. Enclosures. 



Size of fields vjiries with the size of the farms ; in some parts 

 from two to six or eight acres ; in the northern parts, where the 

 farms are large, from 20 to 100 acres. The quicks should 

 never be planted nearer each other than nine inches, and, upon 

 good land, a foot. Quicks four or five years old, with strong 

 clean stems, are always to be preferred to those that are 

 younger and smaller. Jt is a custom in some parts to clip 

 young quicks every year : this makes the fence look neat and 

 snug ; but it checks their growth, and keeps them always weak 

 in the stem, and, when they grow old, open at bottom ; while 

 those that are left to n.iture get strong stems and side branches, 

 which, by interweaving one with another, make a thick and 

 impenetrable hedge, and if cut at proper intervals (of nine or 

 ten years), will always maintain its superiority over those that 

 have been Clipped from their first planting. In point of profit, 

 and of labour saved, there is no comparison ; and for beauty, 

 we prefer nature, and think a luxuriant hawthorn, in full 

 bloom, or laden with its ripened fruit, is a more pleasing, en- 

 livening, and gratifying object, than the stiff, formal sameness 

 produced by the shears. 



7. Arable Land. 



Trench ploughing practised by a few in breaking up grass 

 lands. About 1793, when horses were scarce and dear, a good 

 many oxen wtTe used for ploughing and carting about the 

 farm ; but after a few years' trial, they were given up : they were 

 harnessed both with yokes and collars, and only ploughed half 

 a day at a time. 



Fallurving on all soils once in three or four years, was general 

 through the county till the introduction of turnips. On soils 

 improper for this root, the naked fallow still prevails ; but the 

 quantity of fallow probably on all soils will, after a long series 

 of good culture, become less necessary, and may in many cases 

 be finally dispensed with. 



Turnips were first grown in the northern parts of the county 

 about 1723. Proctor, the proprietor of Roch, brought Andrew 

 Willey, a gardener, to cultivate turnips at Roch, for the pur. 

 pose of feeding cattle ; that ^V'illey afterwards settled at Les- 

 bury, as a gardener, and was employed for many years to sow 

 turnips for all the neighbourhood ; and his businws this way 

 was so great, he was obliged to ride and sow, that he might 

 despatch the greater quantity. 



Hoeing turnips was introduced at the same time, and at first 



FractisM by gardeners, and other men, at extravagant wages. 

 Ideston, about thirtv years since, had the merit of first reduc- 

 ing the price of hoeing, liy teaching boys, girls, and women 

 to perform the work equally as well, if not better than men. 

 The mode he took was simple and ingenious : by a light jilough, 

 without a mould-board, be divided the field into small squares 

 of equal magnitude, and directetl the boys and girls to leave a 

 certain number of plants in each square. In a short time they 

 became accurate, regular, and exj>ert hoers ; and, in a few 

 years, all the turnips in the county were hoed by women and 

 bovs, at half the expense, and better than by men. 



The broadcast culture of turnips, in the northern parts of the 

 countv, was not inferior to any we ever saw ; and in respect to 

 accurate, regular, clean hoeing, superior to what we ever ob- 

 ser^'ed in Norfolk, Suffolk, or other turnip districts which we 

 have frequentlv examined . ( Bailey. ) 



Drilline turnips was first introduced to the county about 



Drilling this, as well as other crops, evidently originated 



' " " . -. of a Work on Horse- 



Arbigland, in DumfiriesBhire, began to drill turnips about 1745 ; 

 and next we find Philip Howard of Corby drilling in 1755; 

 and Pringle drilling "ftom hints taken from Tull's book," in 



1011 



1-1 .1 J 



I I 1 I I 



^Pfcet 



with TuU, whose first work, Specii 

 hoeing Husbandry, appeared in 173" 



It appears that Craig, of 



1756 or 1757. William Dawson, who was well acquainted 

 with the turnip culture in England, having been purposely 

 sent to reside in those districts for six or seven years, wher-; the 

 btst cultivation was pursued, with an intention, not only of 

 seeing but of making himself master of the manual operations, 

 and of all the minutiae in the practice, was convinced of the 

 superiority of Pringle's mode over every other he had seen, 

 either in Norfolk or elsewhere; and in 1762, when he entered 

 to Frogden farm, near Kelso, in Roxburghshire, he imme- 

 diately adopted the practice upon a large scale, to the amount 

 of 100 acres vearly. Though none of Pringle's neighbours fol- 

 lowed the example, yet, no sooner did Dawson, an actual or rent- 

 p tying farmer, adopt the same system, than it was immediately 

 followed, not only by several farmers in his vicinity, but by 

 those very farmers adjoining Pringle, whose crops they had 

 seen, for ten or twelve years, so much superior to their own : 

 the practice in a few years became general. 



8. Grass. 



Not much old grass in the county. 



9. Woods. 



Not very numerous, though a considerable demand for small 

 wood by the proprietors of the collieries and lead mines. Arti- 

 ficial plantations rising in every part of the county. 



10. Itnproventents. 



Embanking and irrigation practised in a few places which 

 require or admit of these operations. 



11. IJve Stock. 



Cattle the short -homed, long-homed, Devonshire, and wild 



Sheep, the Cheviot, heath, and long woolled. The modem 

 maxims of breeding were introduced into the county by one of 

 Bakewell's first disciples, Culley of South Durham, well known 

 for his work on Live Stock, previous to which, " big bones" 

 and " large size" were looked upon as the principal criterion 

 of excellence, and a sacred adherence to the rule of never 

 breeding within the canonical degree of relationship : but those 

 prejudices are at this period in a great measure done aw^y ; 

 and the principal farmers of this district may now be classed 

 amongst the most scientific breeders in the kingdom, who have 

 pursued it with an ardour and unremitting attention that have 

 not failed of success. ^ j . , 



Horses for draught brought from Clydesdale. 



Goats are kept in small numbers on many parts of the Cheviot 

 hills, not so much as an object of profit, but the shepherd asserts, 

 that the sheep flocks are healthier where a few goats do pas- 

 ture. This probably may be the case, as it is well known that 

 goats eat some plants with impunity that are deadly poison to 

 other kinds f f domestic animals. The chief profit made of 

 these goats is, from their milk being sold to invalids, who come 

 to Wooler in the summer season. 



12. Political Economy. 



Roads of whin or limestone, and mostly good. Manufac- 

 tures, gloves at Hexham, plait straw for cottagers' and labourers' 

 hats, and also for those of the higher classes. Woollens in a 

 few places ; and a vEriety of works connected with the coal 

 trade and mines at Newcastle. No agricniltural societies, these 

 Bailey holds in little estimation ; but thinks if public farms 

 were established in each county, and supported by a rate on the 

 income of its proprietors, they would be the most effectual 

 means of promoting agricultural improvement. 



7810 CUMBERLAND. 970,240 acres of mountainous district, remarkable for its picturesque beauty, 

 and also of late greatly improved in its agriculture. The exertions of the late Bishop of Llandaft m plant- 

 ing, and of J. C. Curwen, Esq. in field culture, have contributed much to the improvement of this county, 

 which, as far as its soil and climate permit, may be considered as on a par with Northumberland. {Frm. 

 gle's General fteview, 1794. General View, by J. Bailey and G. Culley, 1804. 

 Smith's Geological Map, 1824.) 



MarshaVs Review, 1808. 



1. Introductory Observations. 

 Pringle informs us that " trres and planti 

 passive, accommodate themselves very slow 



being altogether 



,.,.. ^, -, ~ -, , to a change of 



climate : but the idea has been already thrown out, that even 

 those of the torrid zone may lie made to flourish in the northern 

 regions ; mav be even gradually inured to the climate ; that the 

 climate itself may be changed for the better; and that some 

 thousands of years hence, reposing under their own olive trees, 

 future Britons mav qualftheir own wine, or sip their own tea, 

 sweetened with the juice of thehr own sugir-cane."' 



Pringle " found it impossible" not to mention to the Board 

 that he was remarkably well treated when he sur^'eyed the 

 county, which " filled him with peculiar feelings of pleasure 

 and respect." Some of those feelings he voids on Sir John 

 Sinclair, in the following terms : " WTiat gratitude is due to 

 him (!) who first called the attention of the nation to its most 

 important interests, and whose unremitted efforts are directed 

 to promote the good of his country ! How well does he deserve, 

 and what a sure road has he chosen to, immortal fame that will 

 survive the ravages of time, and smile at the fleeting celebrity 



