AGRICULTURE 



removed all traces of smut without injuring the crop, and lime water was almost as efficacious. The 

 other solutions gave slightly variable but unsatisfactory results. Some Bedfordshire farmers steeped 

 the wheat-seed in urine, which they found (Mr. Thompson of Sundon, for example) to be an effectual 

 cure for smut, if the wheat was sown after being steeped for only a few hours. 



The question of the relation of mildew or rust in wheat to the proximity of barberry plants was 

 also very seriously discussed, most of the Bedfordshire farmers believing that the barberry was capable 

 of causing mildew in wheat contiguous to it, while some farmers remained unconvinced of the con- 

 nexion between the diseases in the two plants. The barberry grew abundantly in many parts of the 

 county, particularly in districts adjoining the winding course of the Ouse. The mildew was 

 particularly destructive in 1 804, and it appears to have been on this account that Sir Joseph Banks, 

 president of the Royal Society, published in 1805 a Short Account of Blighty Mildew, and Rust, in 

 which he showed that these diseases were due to small fungi. The subject was also referred to by 

 Sir Humphry Davy in the lectures on Agricultural Chemistry delivered by him during 1802-12 for 

 the Board of Agriculture. 



The sickle was invariably used in cutting wheat, and the scythe almost invariably in cutting 

 barley and oats. It appears that mowing wheat did not become the practice until about 1 840. It 

 is difficult to get at a trustworthy estimate of the general yield at the beginning of the century. 

 Mr. Batchelor declares : — * The average produce of wheat on the gravels and sands is probably below 

 20 bushels. On good clay loams 25 bushels may be expected after clover, but on clays 

 in general probably not more than 22 bushels, varying, however, according to the skill and 

 good fortune of the farmer, from 17 to 27 bushels, and in extreme cases [including the years of 

 mildew, &c.] from 6 bushels to 40 per acre.' 



The yield of rye sometimes fell below 20 bushels, and did not often exceed four quarters, 

 * though 50 bushels or more have been obtained by the united aid of fallow, fold, and yard-dung.' 

 The average yield of barley was supposed to be something more than four quarters per acre. The 

 average yield of oats was a little greater, though it very rarely approached six quarters, unless on new 

 or rich soils. Peas and beans appear to have yielded an average of about 20 bushels per acre. 

 The swede turnip was beginning to take the place of the white turnip. Mangold wurzel had been 

 introduced into the county, as ' the root of scarcity,' but had fallen into disuse. The culture of 

 potatoes as a fallow crop was still almost unknown, but by 1 840 the potato is said to have become 

 next in importance to wheat. What other crops were grown and in what quantities can be seen 

 from the statement given above. 



Manuring was effected mainly by the application of yard-dung or by folding. The ploughing- 

 in of green crops — clover, buckwheat, tares, &c. — was in some places resorted to. Peat ashes and 

 peat dust were used to some extent, and in the chalk district ' London manure ' was largely 

 employed. Soot from London was also used in the neighbourhood of Luton. Mineral manuring 

 consisted almost exclusively of the application of marl or clay to light sandy soils, and the use of 

 gypsum, chalk, and lime. The employment of the latter seems to have been conditioned by, in some 

 parts of the county, the almost prohibitive price of it. In a curious list of sixty experiments on 

 manures, made by Dr. Cartwright of Woburn, are to be found also sulphuric acid with lime, salt, 

 graves, malt-dust, bone-dust, sawdust, wood-ashes, decayed leaves, &c. 



Much of the ochreous peat of the sandy districts had been drained, particularly in the parishes 

 of Maulden, Crawley, and Flitwick, but in the last-named parish Prisley Moor had offered serious 

 obstacles which were eventually overcome. On wet clays furrow-draining (with bush drains) had 

 become general, the cost being borne partly by the landlord and partly by the tenant. Plough- 

 draining was at first confined to grass-land, but it was found to be applicable also to arable, rendering 



according to Mr. Foster of Bedford — ' the great expense of furrow-draining with bushes almost 



needless.' 



The paring and burning of peaty soils when first broken up was practised to some extent ; 

 but there was a great diversity of opinion as to its utility. During the last decade of the eighteenth 

 century Francis the fifth Duke of Bedford had, at very considerable expense, made a number of 

 attempts at artificial irrigation on different parts of his estates, particularly at Flitwick ; but the 

 experiments do not appear to have been followed by any important permanent results. 



John the sixth Duke of Bedford ordered a number of interesting experiments to be carried out 

 at Woburn, with the intention of discovering the amount of produce and the nutritive qualities of 

 some ninety-seven different kinds of grass used as the food of animals. The experiments were 

 conducted by the Duke's gardener, Mr. George Sinclair, who furnished a full account of them to 

 Sir Humphry Davy.^ 



With respect to the live stock, there is little to be added to what is said in the previous section. 

 The county possessed no peculiar or specially excellent breed of cattle. The principal dairy-farmers 

 ' This account occupies above 60 pages in the appendix to the quarto edition (18 1 3) of Sir Humphry's 

 Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry. 



