Farming of Surrey. 



419 



The Improvements made since the Report of W. Stephenson in 

 1813, and to loh.at extent still required. — The j may be divided 

 into two kinds ; first, general improvements, or those which have 

 been effected in the agricultural world at large ; and, secondly, 

 particular improvements, by which is meant, those which more 

 especially apply to this county. It is not the province of the 

 writer to speak here of the causes of these improvements ; it 

 may be safely assumed that the same circumstances which 

 gradually advance all other branches of industry will apply to 

 this, and that as the increase of population and of wealth have 

 created a demand, the energies of the producer have been ex- 

 cited to increase the supply in proportion. Forty years ago, 

 17,139 sheep and 2649 beasts were the average weekly supply 

 of Smithfield Market ; at the present time, 30,000 sheep and 

 5000 beasts are no unusual number, while the facilities of con- 

 veyance have enlarged the "dead market" in still greater pro- 

 portion. It is true that the population of London has greatly 

 increased, but this increase is more than counterbalanced, as far 

 as the supply of food is concerned, by the establishment of 

 numerous country markets, to which the convenience of railroads 

 has given the London butchers access, and which now take a 

 prominent part in the supply of the metropolis, and have de- 

 stroyed the monopoly formerly possessed by the central market. 

 These circumstances render it difficult to estimate the exact 

 increase in the suppl}- of live stock, but that it has been very 

 great is sufficiently evident. This broad fact (notwithstanding 

 that the teeming population of this country has no longer to 

 depend upon native produce for subsistence) has had its influence 

 in every district and upon every farm ; so that, in the words of 

 a valued correspondent, in a locality where " a few Welsh cow^s 

 were formerly kept, with straw for their principal food, there is 

 now an eagerness for making meat in the yards as v/ell as in the 

 fields. The increase in the quantity of sheep is great, and on 

 my own farm I make off more than 50 per cent, more stock than 

 40 years ago." 



Those general advantages which have arisen from the introduc- 

 tion of artificial manures, the increased growth of turnips^ and 

 the saving of labour effected by the improvement of machines 

 and im.plements, are too well known to need description : it may 

 be mentioned that the practice observed by Stephenson — who 

 " saw, between Bagshot and Chobham, 5 strong horses in a 

 swing-plough give a light furrow^ to a sandy loam, on which the 

 manure was spread for wheat ^' — is now entirely exploded, and 

 that under such circumstances 2 horses in one of the Guildford 

 ploughs are all that would be allowed. The same wTiter also 

 tells us that " he met with the drill in a few parts of the county ; 



VOL. X[V. 2 F 



