[ 49 ] 



around the town, is very rich in {oil and 

 excellently managed, if I may judge by the 

 noble crops I faw. The wheat, barley, 

 and turnips, were very fine, and equal to 

 any I have leen, and the beans, in point of 

 height and thicknefs, made a line appear- 

 ance, but I doubt can never turn out equal 

 to the other crops for want of hoeing : The 

 practice through all this country of lowing 

 three, four, and five bufhels of beans to an 

 acre, and not hoeing, muft for ever exclude 

 capital crops ; that quantity of feed, which 

 is more than double of what is requifite, 

 only choaks the earth with ftraw fo very 

 thick, as not to admit the air to forward 

 the production of the feed. In Suffolk and 

 Effex, they fow only two bufhels, and hoe 

 half the plants up, and yet reap much 

 greater crops than the farmers of this coun- 

 try, which, considering the foil of both, can 

 only be owing to a great fuperiority of ma- 

 nagement. 



The town of Bedford is noted for no- 

 thing but its lace manufactory, which em- 

 ploys above 500 women and girls. They 

 make it of various forts up to 25 s. a 

 yard; women that are very good hands, 

 earn 1 s. a day, but in common only 8^. 

 yd. and lod. Girls from eight to fifteen, 

 earn bd. 8d-. yd. a clay. This manufac- 

 ture is of infinite ufe to the town, empl 



Vol. I. E ing 



