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III. — On the Farming of Cambridgeshire. By Samuel Jonas. 
Prize Report. 
In attempting to write a Report on the Farming of the County 
of Cambridge I feel the difficulty of the task I have undertaken; 
and how truly it may be said that practical farmers are not qua- 
lified to convey to others their opinions and sentiments in the 
clear and concise manner so necessary to engage attention : for, 
although very extensively engaged as a tenant-farmer in the cul- 
tivation of land, I feel myself unable to write clearly on that 
business in which my whole time is occupied. I must trust, 
however, to the public to overlook the style, and attend to the 
practical information I may indite. 
Cambridgeshire is a purely agricultural county, no manufac- 
tures being carried on in it; so that the whole of its ])opulation 
may fairly be said to be agricultural. This population (1841) 
was as follows : — Males, 81,611 ; females, 82,848. Total popu- 
lation, 164,459. 
The county contains about .536,313 acres of land. Mr. Van- 
couver states, that in 1794, 112,500 acres were unimproved — 
fen, common, and sheep-walks; but Mr. Gooch writes, in 1806, 
that full 63,000 acres of this waste were then cultivated. 7 here- 
fore, presuming that 63,000 acres have been broken up and cul- 
tivated for half a century, yielding an annual produce of 41. per 
acre, we have an increase of wea'th thus added to the slate 
within the above period of fifty years, of 12,000,000/. from this 
land, or an annual increase of produce worth 252,000/. I am 
not able to point out the annual increase of produce on the old 
cultivated parts now, as compared with the annual produce in 
1806, but it must be to an extent that would not easily be 
credited, in consequence of the whole county being enclosed, with 
the exception of four or five parishes, and having been rendered 
doubly productive by improved systems of cultivation. And as 
this county is purely and exclusively an agricultural one, I hope 
it will not be deemed irrelevant to this subject if I point out how 
the breaking up and converting this waste into productive land, 
by thorough-draining the clay district, draining and claying the 
fens, and the improved system on the light land district, has 
created such a demand for labour, as to have absorbed the amaz- 
ing increase of our population since 1801, when the population 
was only 89,364 ; while in 1841 it had increased to the extent 
of 164,459, being an increase of 75,113 in the period of forty 
years. This increase has found employment in agricultural 
pursuits, or as tradesmen, mechanics, and artisans, in supplying 
the wants of those engaged in agriculture. 
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