A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



their own, yet over the greater part of the county almost every large farm offers a variety of soil 

 within its own area, dominated of course in most cases by the underlying geological character of the 

 locality. 



The ancient, or even the mediaeval, history of the agriculture of Bedfordshire cannot be 

 sharply separated from that of the country at large. A large portion of the shire was probably 

 settled and cultivated from an early period, and many details and references to its agricultural 

 development will be found in the article relating to Domesday in F.C.H. Beds, i, and in the Social 

 and Economic History of the county contained in the present volume. 



From various sources we learn that the county was early noted as a corn district, producing 

 excellent wheat and barley. It seems to have been also one of the principal localities in which the 

 production of woad in large quantities had survived from the time of the ancient Britons. Camden, 

 in his Britannia^ which was first published in 1586, gives a detailed account of the cultivation of 

 this plant in Bedfordshire in the sixteenth century. He describes also the process by which it was 

 prepared for the dyer, and states that the usual price obtained for it when thus prepared was ;£i8 a 

 ton. But the local cultivation of woad had ceased before the end of the eighteenth century. We 

 learn also that the dairy farms of the southern part of the county early sent much of their produce 

 to London ; and that the market-gardening industry of the eastern part of the county, which has in 

 recent times been very extensively developed, had existed from time immemorial. 



In the latter part of the eighteenth century, and early in the nineteenth, we meet with mono- 

 graphs by professional or practical men, dealing with special branches of rural activity, as well as 

 notes by such writers as Arthur Young. A much more intelligent attention is also given to agri- 

 culture, and it becomes the fashion for the great landowners to interest themselves in the scientific 

 development of their estates. The leading men of this class in Bedfordshire then were the successive 

 Dukes of Bedford, the Lords de Grey, the Lords St. John, the Whitbreads, and a few others. Their 

 efforts were supported by a number of smaller landowners and large tenant-farmers. The agricul- 

 tural periodicals of the time, which had very considerable literary merits, made frequent references to 

 Bedfordshire agriculture, and published numerous communications from Bedfordshire farmers. Separate 

 publications also become more numerous. For example, William Stone, a surveyor who was for a 

 time land agent to the Duke of Bedford, issued, in connexion with the Board of Agriculture, in 

 1794, A General Fiew of the Agriculture of the County of Bedford. 



Stone estimates the total area of the county at 307,200 acres, of which he says that 68,100 

 acres were meadow-land, as against 107,550 acres of permanent grass at the present time. 

 Woodland absorbed 21,900 acres, a total which has since been diminished to 13,313 acres. Much 

 of this diminution took place early in the nineteenth century, when the extremely high price of 

 corn induced the farmers not only to convert pasture into arable, but also to destroy much fine 

 timber in order to grow wheat. We have it on good oral testimony that in some parishes the 

 timber was wastefuUy burnt on the spot to get rid of it. The remaining 217,200 acres of Stone's 

 estimate are described by him as open or common fields, common meadows (which, presumably, are 

 to be added to his above-given estimate of meadow-land), commons and waste lands. From other 

 sources we learn that at the time of Stone's writing inclosures of common lands had taken place in 

 only about twenty-five parishes, or less than one-fifth of the total number of parishes. 



The impression made upon Stone's mind by his observations was that agriculture in this district 

 was in a generally neglected condition. The principal cause of this, he says, was that until quite 

 recently the gentlemen of property had given little if any attention to ' advancement in rural 

 economy.' The management of their country concerns had been very frequently committed to 

 persons who, however capable of looking after other kinds of property, were totally unacquainted 

 with agriculture. He remarks that ' with the same propriety might a mere husbandman be called 

 from the plough to amputate a limb.' He found the cattle to consist of confused mixed breeds, 

 ' from the Holderness and Leicestershire to the Alderney sorts.' It had not been the general prac- 

 tice to attend carefully to breeding from any particular sort, and the beasts were especially deficient 

 as beef-producers. However, in the southern part of the county, where much of the land was 

 used for dairy farming, butter was made for the London market of a quality superior to that produced 

 in other central and northern parts. The sheep were of a very unprofitable quality, especially those 

 kept in the common fields. It was impossible to distinguish any particular breed among the latter ; 

 1 the breeds became mixed through the practice of jobbers driving the sheep from fair to fair. He 

 found a very few exceptions to this general character of the sheep, notably at Goldington, Ickwell 

 and a few other places. The sheep kept on inclosed lands were superior to the others, and were 

 mostly mixtures of Lincolnshire and Leicestershire breeds. Wethers were sent to market from 

 inclosed lands when they had been twice shorn ; when fat, they fetched from 355. to 40^. per head. 

 Fleeces weighed from seven to nine lb. Francis, fifth Duke of Bedford, was making some valu- 

 able experiments in sheep-breeding, and Mr. Bennet of Tempsford had a breed of new Leicesters 

 which did him great credit, and were equal to those of the best breeders in Leicestershire. Their 



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