16 
On the Farming of Essex. 
those best calculated to walk quickly are selected as best adapted 
to effect the work. 
Common harrows made with wood, and iron teeth, are most 
prevalent, not only here but throughout the county. They are 
extremely small, so that six of them form a set, being fixed to- 
gether with iron couplings and attached to long or short whipple- 
trees, by a chain and swivel ; two of these harrows cover a single 
ridge of four furrows; four cover an eight-furrow stetch, consisting 
of two ridges bouted into one ; and the six covering the three 
ridges ploughed as one stetch of twelve furrows, each ridge being 
3 feet 3J inches, and each harrow being only 1 foot 7 inches wide, 
ha\ing two sides running parallel with four or six cross-bars 
united to the sides with a tenon inserted into a mortice.* 
Rollers peculiar to the district are used, the one a small-bellied 
roller about 4 feet long, without a frame; the other a similar 
roller, double the length, with a frame ; the first is used for rolling 
four- furrowed ridges, and the latter eight- furrowed ridges: the 
common roller peculiar to the other parts of the county is of dif- 
ferent dimensions ; the double roller with joints, to enable the 
horses to walk in the furrow, and having one shaft fixed to each 
roller, is of modern invention, and supersedes both the other de- 
scriptions upon stetches of all sizes and of different planes, as the 
roller, from being attached by joints adapts itself, as it proceeds, 
to every description of stetch it passes over. 
Root- ditching, as it is termed, is prevalent throughout this 
district ; this is performed by cutting a drain about 20 inches in 
depth, parallel with the banks round the fields, about 10 feet from 
the hedges ; by thus dividing the roots that protrude from the trees, 
great injury to the crops is prevented ; otherwise, in dry seasons 
especially, they affect the crops to an astonishing degree for seve- 
ral perches from the fences, especially where ash-timber abounds. 
Here, however, pollard oaks, with now and then a clump 
of elm and ash thinly scattered, are the extent of our timber. 
The fences are also weak, with low banks (thence the repute as a 
hunting district), of which the live portions are principally black- 
thorn and hazel. Fences more recently planted consist of white- 
thorn quick, placed upon the face of the bank in single or 
* An objection, however, exists as respects harrows made upon this 
construction, for, from the sides throughout being parallel, and a space 
being allowed for each harrow to work independently, the tines are apt to 
leave the edges of the furrows uncut in straight lines ; this is obviated by 
increasing the length of the foot-chains of each harrow gradually from side 
to side of the whole width, and, instead of being fixed at the middle of the 
front bar, each is fixed more towards one side than the other, by which 
the harrows, when drawn forward, move diagonally, and thus more fully 
effect the object of thoroughly pulverizing the surface 
