436 



Agriculture of Nortliumberland. 



der) the degradation of applying for parochial relief. It is still 

 usual, in many places, to pay the yearly servants in the })ro- 

 dace of the farm ; however, as the men are beginning to find 

 that they receive less actual wages in this case than when paid in 

 money, the custom is fast dying away. The work on the farms 

 is now principally done by resident married men, as their wives 

 and children are found very useful, and more to be depended on 

 than those of the nei^^hbouring- cottag'ers. The m^arried men are 

 always engaged for a year, and at present receive 14^. per week, 

 with house and coals. The young men, who always reside in the 

 farmer's house, receive about 20/. per annum, and the female 

 servants about 9/. to 10/. There is every prospect of a rise in the 

 price of labour, consequent on the demand caused by railways, and 

 the general briskness of trade in the district. For the ordinary 

 work on the farm, females are employed at \Qd. per day, and 

 nearly the whole of the harvest-work in the county is done by 

 women, who are paid from 25. to 2>s. per day. Where they can- 

 not be procured, Irish labourers are employed, generally at so 

 much per acre and their food, the price varying with the crop. 



With little fear of contradiction, it may be asserted that no por- 

 tion of England has made such rapid improvement within the 

 last forty years as Northumberland. At the time of Bailly and 

 Cully's Report, it seems to have been usual to take two white 

 crops in succession for one fallow (as is still done in the worst 

 part of Ireland), and to continue to do so, until the land was 

 worn out ; after which, it was allowed to remain as many years in 

 grass as it had been in tillage. The day in which such farming 

 could be tolerated has, hov/ever, long gone by. In perusing the 

 Report already named, it will also be observed that the point prin- 

 cipally insisted on is to maintain a proper proportion between the 

 grass and tillage land on each farm. However necessary such 

 a plan might be at a time when the artificial manures were un- 

 known, oil-cake as food for cattle unheard of, and the artificial 

 grasses but little cultivated, no such necessity now exists. Indeed, 

 as we have named, on the best turnip-soils old grass has long been 

 dispensed with. Since the beginning of the present century, the 

 farming of this county has undergone every species of trial between 

 high prohibitory duties and free trade, notwithstanding which 

 there has been a general steady rise in the value of land; and 

 many estates, especially in the turnip district, now bring nearly 

 the same rental they did when wheat was 1505. per quarter. It 

 is mentioned in Bailly and Cully's Report that the weekly show 

 of stock in Morpeth market was 80 cattle and 1600 sheep. This 

 market was removed to Newcastle five or six years ago ; and on 

 the 28th November, 1846, there were shown 287 cattle and 4)28 

 sheep ! These figures certainly show a greatly increased produc- 



