30 
On the Farming of Essex. 
As a preparation for wheat no other crop is considered so bene- 
ficial excepting clover. 
Peas, grey, white, and blue, are extensively grown ; they are 
mostly drilled after the barley crop, and thus become, like beans, 
the intervening crop between the barley and wheat crops. They 
are usually drilled in rows 9 inches apart, with about 3 bushels of 
seed to the acre, and are generally hoed twice, at an expense of 
6s. per acre. The produce is uncertain, but in good seasons will 
be from 4 to 6 quarters per acre. The former quantity may be 
taken as a full average crop. The expenses will stand as fol- 
lows : — 
£. 
s. 
d. 
One ploughing 
0 
9 
0 
Three harrowings 
0 
2 
3 
One rolling . 
0 
1 
0 
Harrowing 
0 
0 
6 
Hoeing 
0 
4 
0 
Ditto .... 
0 
2 
0 
Cutting and harvesting 
0 
9 
0 
Thrashing and marketing . 
0 
12 
0 
Seed .... 
0 
12 
0 
£2 
11 
9 
Garden peas are extensively grown for the London seedsmen, 
who find the seed, and pay from 40s. to 50s. per quarter for the 
produce (1844), after again deducting their seed. This is a very 
precarious mode of croj)plng, as the peas so grown are frequently a 
delicate or dwarf variety, and are consequently more hazardous to 
obtain a full plant than of the grey peas or other long-straw 
varieties ; and also suffer the weeds to rise amidst the crop, thereby 
injuring the land to an extent that frequently overbalances the 
difference obtained in price. 
The wheat crop may be variously stated ; but, taking a suc- 
cession of years, 30 bushels per acre may be considered an ave- 
rage crop. 
The wheat-plant is mostly hoed by hand, at an expense of 4s. 
per acre, in March and early in April. The cost of harvesting is 
about 10.S-. Grtf. per acre, which, with the ale, amounts to Is. dd. 
more ; thrashing by hand from '2s. GtZ. to 3s. Q>d. per quarter ; and 
the straw binding of 36 trusses to the load, and 36 lbs. to the 
truss, for market. Is. to Is. 6f/. per load. 
Clover seed, both Dutch and red, as well as trefoil, are grown 
in this district with success. The quantity of the former may be 
taken at from 3 to 5 bushels to the acre as an average crop, and 
of the latter from 6 to 7 bushels per acre. Wheat generally 
succeeds it, but not so well as when the clover is mown for hay. 
