ISLE of M A N. 
their own rearing. The ufual number of horfes allowed for 
liufbandry on the low-land farms, is one team oftwb or three 
horfes, from thirteen to fifteen hands high, to thirty acres 
of tillage. The upland farmers ufe double the number, 
but of a fmaller fize, and of the native breed, which ap¬ 
pears fimilar to that of North Wales. Horned cattle are 
numerous ; but the old flock, for want of care, is nearly 
loft. They were fliort-legged and thick-bodied, and more 
profitable to fatten than referve for milk. Twelve quarts of 
a rich quality was the average return, producing nearly 
two quarts of cream, yielding fixteen ounces of butter. 
A few barrel-churns are ufed, but plunge-churns are the 
mod common. 
Sheep are fed chiefly on the uplands. The ancient 
flock is very fmall and hardy, much like the fouth-down 
of England, and endures the fevereft weather. When fat, 
their ufual weight is from five to eight pounds per quaiv 
ter. Their meat is excellent. This is fti 11 the breed upon 
the uplands and mountains; but in the low lands a larger 
fort has been introduced. Two pounds and a half is the 
average weight of the fleeces of the fmall fheep, and fix 
or feven pounds of the large ones. It is not of the fineft 
or longeft ftaple. The fheep are not wafhed previoufly. 
to their being fheared. Befides the two forts already 
mentioned, there is a peculiar breed called Laughton, 
having wool of a light brown, or fnuff colour. Thefe are 
not accounted hardy, and are more difficult to fatten than 
the other forts. The cloth made of their wool is much 
liked by the natives, and on this account only is the breed 
preferved. Hollinfhed fays, “ the Manks fheep are ex¬ 
ceeding huge, with tails of an almolt incredible magni¬ 
tude ; the hogs are monftrous.” 
The country is fufficiently populous for the extent of 
cultivated ground ; but the berring-fifhery, engaging the 
attention of fo many men and fmall farmers during the 
fummer or autumnal months, is a great check to agricul¬ 
ture, and renders labour fcarce : thus the getting-in of 
the harveft is very tedious, for want of fufficient hands ; 
and it is often much injured by the .weather. Four-fifths 
of the farming bulinefs fall to the fhare of the women : 
they are reckoned very expert in reaping and in digging 
potatoes, and perform not amifs many other parts of huf- 
bandry. A mower cuts in a day about three quarters of 
an acre of grafs ; and five female reapers, with one to bind, 
cut an acre of corn. The practice is to cut the corn as 
clofe to the ground as poffible. Mowing corn has been 
tried, by way of experiment, but is not much praflifed. 
The price of labour is continually increafing. Men get, 
during the harveft, one fnilling per day, and women ten- 
pence, befides provifions; and the quantity of work ef¬ 
fected is very inferior to that on the oppofite fliores. A 
ploughman experts from eight to ten guineas a-year, and 
a boy three. Some of the experienced Scotch labourers 
have been procured at double wages, and found a great 
acquifition to the farmers. 
Much land has been improved by draining, and a good 
deal more requires it. The covered drains are ufually 
two feet nine inches deep, nine' inches wide at bottom, 
and two feet at top. They are filled tip one-half with 
ftones, and on them a layer, either of ft raw', or neatly- 
pared turf, to prevent the mould from getting in. On ftiff 
clayey land they had been conftrufted, and found to an- 
fwer, without ftones, the drain being narrower, and the 
turf refting upon a ledge on each fide. The ditches are, 
in general, too fhallovv, and not kept clean. A northern 
traCl of two thoufand acres, fix miles long, has been con¬ 
verted from a marfti to arable and pafture-land by a drain 
of ten feet wide and fix deep. 
For manure, farmers rely chiefly on farm-yard dung, 
and, if near the fbore, on fea-weed. The latter is either 
ufed immediately for corn or potatoes, or forms a part of 
a valuable compoft. For barley it is particularly ufeful ; 
but is totally expended by a fecond crop. Plough-oxen, 
fleers, heifers, and dry cattle, con fume the oat and bar¬ 
ley ft raw. The aged cattle are kept in houfes; the young-, 
Vol. XI. No. 764. 
417 
in yards or the corners of dry pailures, with the liberty 
of ranging the fields in the day-time. Lime is an excel¬ 
lent and durable manure upon foils of clay or peat; but 
the expence of quarrying and of burning it prevents its 
being greatly ufed. The fweepings of the herring-houfes, 
were it not for their limited application, would be very 
profitable to the farmer. A foil of fand is highly im¬ 
proved by a layer of the clay found a few feet beneath the 
furface. From three to four hundred loads, of ten hun¬ 
dred weight each, are put upon every acre. After it is 
crumbled to pieces by the winter rains and frofts, the 
land is put in tillage. The northern flat is rendered by 
this treatment the moft fertile of any in the ifland. Its 
chief produce is barley, a confiderable portion of which 
is fent annually to Douglas. Arable .land is laid out in 
ridges of various fixes; thofe of peafe, wheat, or oats, 
from four to nine feet wide ; of barley, from twelve to 
twenty feet. .High ridges are never ufed, the depth of 
foil being feldom Jufficient admit them. ' 
A regular rotation of crops is little underftood or prac- 
tifed. The one moft approved is this: The firft crop, po¬ 
tatoes or turnips, well manured ; the fecond, barley ; tho 
third, clover; the fourth, oats, fometimes, if good land, 
wheat; the fifth, peafe, or oats if wheat has gone before. 
A poor foil, after having fuftained two or three rotations, 
is often buffered to ftock itfelf with natural grades. This 
is the work of feveral years. For a few years more it is 
furrendered to pafture, and then fubjefted to another ro¬ 
tation of crops. Heathy land, not being Tandy, is im¬ 
proved moftly with thorough fallowing and liming, and, 
after a few crops, is fown with grafs-l’eeds; but, unlefs 
thefe foils have frequent dreflings and tillage, they return 
to their original ftate. Summer-fallowing is little prac- 
tifed. 
The cultivation of wheat is not general, chiefly on ac¬ 
count of its being fubjedl to the fmut in this climate. 
The red fort of feed is the moft common, and is ufually 
fown immediately after the potatoes are dug up, in No¬ 
vember or December. The return is, ufually, from twenty- 
four to thirty-fix bufhels per acre.. It is always fold by 
the aftual weight of fixty-four pounds to the eflimated 
bufhel. Five thoufand pounds worth of flour is annually 
imported. About half the corn-land is ufed in the cul¬ 
tivation of barley. Two forts are fown : the four-rowed, 
which is fit only for malt; and the two-rowed, the meal 
of which is ufed for the unleavened bread. Seed-time is 
from the middle of April to the middle of May. The ufual 
allowance of feed per acre is from three and ahalftofourand 
a half bufhels, and theayerage return thirty-fix. Nearly the 
other half of the corn-land is ufed in the cultivation of oats. 
Two forts are fown, the white and the Poland. Seed-time 
is from the beginning of March to the middle of April. 
The allowance of feed is five or fix bufhels per acre, and 
the average return thirty. Beans are not much cultivated, 
owing to the latenefs and wetnefs of the harveft. Grey 
and white peafe are in common ufe, and are fown in the 
month of April. The allowance of feed is two and a half 
bufhels per acre, and the return about twenty bufhels. 
This is a crop which tends to meliorate the foil, and ren¬ 
der it more fit for corn. Little rye is cultivated, and the 
grain is not in demand. The inhabitants are very partial 
to potatoes. There are many forts, and various modes of 
cultivation. The time of planting is from the end of 
March to the middle of May; the lets firft planted yield¬ 
ing the moft mealy potatoes, but thofe laft planted the 
greatefl crops. Eighteen or twenty bufhels are the com¬ 
mon allowance of fets. Their return depends greatly 
upon the care taken in weeding and hoeing, and is gene¬ 
rally from one hundred and fixty to two hundred bufhels. 
With extraordinary attention three hundred bufhels have 
been obtained. The digging-up is performed with a 
three-lined fork. A good labourer will raife eight heaped 
bufhels in a day without the affillance of a picker. They 
are generally preferved in large heaps, out of doors, de¬ 
fended from, the froft bydlraw- packed clofe round them, 
5 Q - and 
