On the Farming of Essex. 
5 
very prevalent in this district, but is now almost discontinuetl, the 
suckling of calves and grazing having in a material degree super- 
seded it ; but the butter, when produced, is of fine flavour and 
quality, and bears a high price in the London market. 
The system of management pursued appears well adapted to the 
district, as abundant crops of barley and wheat are produced upon 
the system of alternate naked fallows ; and although it may appear 
not so profitable, still when put into competition with the four-course 
shift, less difference, upon calculation, becomes apparent than 
might be at first supposed ; this arises from the greatly diminished 
expenses of cultivation, as by a continuous system of farming upon 
this principle weeds become almost eradicated, and in many por- 
tions of the district under good management are hardly to be found 
in the eddishes, with the exception of the yellow charlock, which 
appears in the barley crop, and, in the spring, sometimes prevails 
so much as to render the fields one continuous mass of bright 
orange colour, undoubtedly injuring the crop, but certainly not to 
the extent that a casual observer would imagine. 
The system as carried out is upon ridges of four furrows only, 
five of which ridges in width make about a rod, or 3 feet 3^ inches 
each. These, in the first instance, are what is termed sized ; that 
is, if the land is harrowed or scarified down flat, the ploughman 
sizes them by going one bout, or by once going and returning up 
the field ; which an experienced hand can effect with the utmost 
precision. The next operation is called four-furrowing; the ridge 
Ijeing ploughed in a neat compact manner with two bouts or four 
furrows : these, again, are either struck down with two furrows, as 
in the first instance, and again four-furrowed, or four-furrowed in 
succession, the tilths being given at intervals of about one month, 
and from three to four altogether during the summer ; three and 
half (or twice four-furrowed, and three times struck or sized) con- 
stituting what is termed a clean summer's fallow. 
The land lies in this state either (as it is termed) upon the 
round ridge ploughed with four furrows, or upon the flat ridge 
ploughed with two furrows, until the following spring, when in 
the month of March it is either scarified and drilled, or the barley 
is sown by three operations, and partly ploughed and partly har- 
rowed in with a very light pair of harrows. Four ploughs and a 
pair of harrows, with one seedsman, will put in from five to six 
acres per day, and the neatness with which it is executed exceeds 
description, as upon an acre scarcely a clod of two inches' dia- 
meter can be seen, and the finest tilth imaginable is produced by 
the action of the frost during the winter. 
When the scarifier is adopted, the drill becomes necessary, and 
as this mode in the majority of seasons succeeds best, it is now be- 
