8 
On the Farming of Essex. 
upon the best lands cannot, however, be taken at more than 32 
bushels per acre, and upon the inferior lands at about 18 bushels. 
The routine of farming presents so little variety upon soils 
cultivated upon this system, and the active management is reduced 
into such narrow limits, that during the winter months it very 
little engages the attention of the farmer beyond that of merely 
attending to the thrashing and marketing his grain, and carrying 
out his draining, which, however, requires his close inspection, for 
unless this department is well looked to (being task- work), the 
labourers will not execute it properlv ; and instead of benefiting 
their employer, will for the sake of the trifling difference in wages 
that they can thus obtain, produce more mischief than they effect 
good. The best mode is to let the cutting of the drains by task- 
work, for which from 2s. 6^f. to 85. 6(f. per score rods is paid ; a 
confidential man is employed to fill and complete them, for which 
he is paid by the day ; but upon small occupations this department 
is undertaken by the farmer himself, or his sons, who attend in 
the afternoon, and, after having seen that the drains are properly 
cut, commence filling them with wood and straw. It is presumed 
draining has been carried on in this district longer than in any 
other part of the kingdom, endence of its having been prac- 
tised for upwards of one hundred vears being found from old 
entries of labour paid ; but the supposition is that it has been 
in use from about 1700, that is. nearlv 130 vears after Tusser 
published his "500 Poyntes of Husbandry, " in which work he 
makes no mention of the practice. The process as carried out is 
simple and effective, and of little expense in comparison with that 
practised in other districts ; several methods are prevalent, of all 
of which sufficient notice will be taken to show their comparative 
merits. 
The oldest and still most prevalent mode is by ploughing out 
the drains transversely to the ridges, or rather diagonally of the 
field, taking care to give them sufficient fall or draught for the 
water. They are usually ploughed parallel to each other at dis- 
tances varying from 5 to 7 yards apart, those soils where the 
greater quantitv of chalk abounds not requiring them to be so 
near to each other as where the stiffer loam prevails. The plough- 
man first opens his work with a larger and stronger description of 
plough than the common foot plough used in the district for 
ordinarv purposes ; this he does by ploughing out four furrows, 
commencing on the outside, leaving what is called a baulk in the 
middle, which is also ploughed out by two furrows more ; the 
plough is then brought back in the bottom of the last ploughed 
furrow, and bv one or two operations a depth of 0 or 8 inches is 
obtained. Sometimes a seamd plough is used of peculiar con- 
struction, having a narrow ground and light breast, which takes 
