English agriculture in 1850-51
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SI ‘Avpo Suoays — Surpry qsury “WIR OATYSUOpPAMOTT ‘pasreyo | *paseyd “STITEL “dooyy “moqe'T rate : : “ cone, eee ie asaoyy =| enuryy ae aL quay SLOIMLSIG ‘AN0V Utd NUOO FO GIXIA AHL ANY ‘NOILVAILINO JO SISOO AHL DNIMOHS AAV Norty Ripinc.] DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 321 and produce, and ascertain in what respects they excel or fall short of the examples here given. The North Riding is bounded on the south by the East and West Ridings, on the north by the river Tees, which separates it from Durham, and is traversed by the York and Newcastle Railway from York to the borders of the county near Darlington. The central and northern portions of the riding, situated along the valleys of the rivers, contain the greatest extent of valuable land. To the eastward lie the Yorkshire moors, comprehending an extent of 400,000 acres, and rising from 1,000 to 1,500 feet above the sea level. On the west the country rises to the highlands on the borders of Westmoreland, with rich valleys of pasture land skirting the streams which drain that limestone country and flow through the picturesque dales of the North Riding. ‘Much of the best land in the lower portion of the district is kept in permanent pasture; and in the neighbourhood of Northallerton, Catterick, and along the southern bank of the Tees, are found the most celebrated herds of short horn cattle which now exist in England. The opposite bank of the Tees, which gave the name to the breed of Durham cattle, has lost its principal men, —the Collings, —and the best herds may now be said to be confined to the south side of Teesdale. Men are still to be found there who have been bred from their childhood to study the peculiarities of form and symmetry which, combined with early maturity and great weight, have given the improved Short horn its celebrity. Seldom leaving home, often the first to see their stock in the morning, and the last to visit them Y 322 NATIVE DISTRICT OF SHORT HORNS. ([Nortu Rivne. at night, making the health of each individual of the herd a study, and enabled by constant attention, and particular management, to encourage the development of such points as they think requisite, while everything else on the farm is made subordinate to the stock— these men have acquired a fame which is the result of such earnest application, and cannot long be maintained without it. They succeed; and to all parts of the United Kingdom is diffused, from the hands of not half a dozen men in the North Riding, the blood which has improved, and continues to improve, the native breeds of every district into which it is introduced. Two, three, or four hundred pounds for a bull is no uncommon price; and a cow of rare form and breeding has been bought by a farmer for 300 guineas. Ireland and Lincolnshire borrow for a season the best animals which leave the district; and the Messrs. Booth have at this moment bulls which bring them in 100/. a year each, and are let to the same parties at that rate for a succession of years. But these prizes are only to the most successful; for many, tempted by these and similar rates, try the system without counting the cost of patient study, constant application, and liberal outlay, by which such success has been achieved. It is not merely the first outlay, however lavish, that will place the beginner in the rank of a first-class breeder of Short horns. He must be pre- pared to sacrifice every other consideration on his farm to their welfare; and after he has collected his herd, and fed and watched them with the utmost care, he must stand the risk and uncertainty attending their management. If too fat, they cease to breed, or they produce dead calves; if too lean, they lose caste, and their produce sells at second rate prices. One of the most experienced men in the district — himself an eminent breeder and first-rate judge — informed us that one season 34 of his high-priced and high-bred cows missed having calves; and so great are the risks attending this business, that it is every year narrowing itself into fewer hands. Men of station and wealth embark in it frequently as a hobby, and some, like the Nortu Rip1ne. | AUTUMN FALLOWING. But such cases are exceptional. The farm of Messrs. Outhwaite, of Bainesse, near Catterick, may be taken as a very favourable specimen of agricultural management in the North Riding. It is bounded on one side by the river Swale, and its soil on the lower division is a good friable turnip loam on a thirsty gravel, and on the higher side a deeper and stronger soil, now found, after being thoroughly drained, the most valuable land on the farm. It comprises 461 acres, elghty of which are permanent grass. The four-course, extended into a six by introducing beans instead of a portion of the seeds, is the system of farming adopted, with this peculiarity —that oats or barley are taken on the clover leys, wheat and barley after turnips. Wheat is also sown after beans and potatoes, Spalding’s red being sown from October till the 20th of November, beginning with seven pecks of seed and increasing to nine. arly in spring, as the swedes are consumed, the land is ploughed and drilled with Hunter’s white wheat; the sowing of which continues till the middle of March, after which barley is taken on such land as has not at that time been cleared of the turnip crop. The oats and barley are also drilled in at nine inches apart, and the whole of the corn crops on this farm are repeatedly horsehoed in spring. Beans are sown upon manured land with the drill, and are likewise well horsehoed. The great aim in the culture of the farm is the early pre- paration of the land intended for the turnip crop; to this all other work is postponed after the corn crops have been secured in autumn. The stubbles are then stirred in one direction by Biddle’s “ scarifier,” the sharp-pointed tines being used in this operation, and the ground torn up to the depth of five or six inches. After the field has been gone over once, the * scarifier” is fitted with the broad share tines, and made to cross the former stirring at right angles, thus tearing the ground to pieces, and disengaging the stubble and roots of weeds and a 324 ITS ADVANTAGES. [Norru Rripinc. twitch, which are drawn together on the surface by the harrows, then gathered by the horse rake, and laid in a heap to be carried home for littering the cattle yards. The land, now thoroughly pulverised, is ploughed with a clean deep furrow, and in that state is left exposed to the influence of the weather till spring, when it receives one furrow more, and is found in fine condition for vegetating the seed of the turnip crop. The theory on which this early culture is recommended is, that twitch, immediately after harvest, is comparatively weak, and has not extended its roots far beneath the surface; but as soon as the corn crop is removed, and the twitch so permitted to grow without obstruction, it spreads rapidly along the surface, and penetrates deeply beneath it; and every week that it is left undisturbed renders its extirpation more difficult and expensive. Tear it up early, and the seedlings are at once shaken out entire from the tender soil; leave it to strike deeper root, and every broken fibre that remains strikes afresh, and, gaining strength throughout the winter and early spring, gives the farmer at that busy season the expense of a second fallowing. The advantage of this early preparation is attended with this further benefit, that only one furrow is requisite in May, and, the ground not being deprived of its moisture at that season, the turnip seed is almost sure to vegetate at once. So successful have the Messrs. Outhwaite found this management, that they are now enabled to sow their entire extent of turnip land with swedes; and the preparation of the soil, besides being so much more early and effectual, is not nearly so expensive as under the common system. The swedes are sown on the ridge, twenty-eight to thirty inches apart, eight loads of well-rotted farmyard dung and 13 ewt. of guano per acre being previously applied and covered in on the weakest land, on which the crop is afterwards eaten with sheep. On the better land 14 tons of dung and 1} cwt. of guano per acre are applied, the crop in this case being all drawn for con- sumption by cattle. The sheep are penned upon the turnips, Norra Rivinc.] FEEDING OF SHEEP AND CATTLE. 325 and receive }1b. of oilcake each daily. In the beginning of May, after being shorn, the most forward hoggets — being those bred on the farm—are sent to market, and weigh 24 lb. per quarter. The rest follow as they get ready, after being a month or six weeks on clover. About one sheep per acre is wintered on the farm, and seventy beasts, one lot after another, are fattened in the yards and stalls. The oxen are fed in sheds and yards loose, six or eight together; the heifers are tied up in stalls. They all receive cut swedes daily, and for the last ten weeks 7 Ib. to 8lb. each of oileake and bean meal mixed together. 1,400 to 1,500 bushels of beans and barley, the produce of the farm, are annually consumed on it, the whole of the beans being so applied, and all the barley which does not sell for malting. Twelve work horses are kept, and they consume all the oats produced. The wheat crop scarcely averages thirty-two bushels, the oats sixty-four, and the barley forty-eight bushels an acre. The tenants have no lease nor tenant right, and their rent and tithe together amount to 1,200/. Such is a specimen of the best arable farming in the most fertile district of the North Riding, the Messrs. Outhwaite having taken a prize offered for the best managed farm within a circle of twenty-five miles round Richmond. There are many other farms in that district which may equal them in annual yield; but none, that we saw, come near to them in their ex- tensive culture of the swede — confessedly by far the most valuable and nutritious of our turnip crops. The general pro- portion of swedes to white and other soft turnips is quite inconsiderable, and the scanty crops even of soft turnips, which are everywhere to be seen in this district, do not bespeak very liberal management. The quantity of manure applied is too limited, but the land is considered high rented, and the land- lords do not in many cases afford their tenants such sympathy and aid as they think themselves justly entitled to with present prices. In the neighbourhood of Catterick and Richmond, several farms have in consequence been given up, the landlords Sars: 326 THE VALE OF CLEVELAND. [Norra Rripine. refusing to submit to any abatement; and one nobleman is said to have as many as eight or nine farms at present on his hands. On other estates in the same neighbourhood there are no farms vacated, the land having been moderately let, and the landlord (as in the case of the Duke of Northumberland at Stanwick, where the rent of good land runs from 18s. to 36s. an acre, tithe free) also draining the farms for his tenants at a charge of 5s. an acre, and building them suitable accommodation for their stock without making any charge for that outlay. The vale of Cleveland, comprehending the low-lying district which extends from the York moors to the river Tees, forms the next prominent feature in the agriculture of the North Riding. It is generally a cold strong clay, resting on the blue lias, by far the greater portion of it undrained and badly farmed. Formerly this district was celebrated for its cheese and horses ; but the latter are now scarcely to be met with as a distinctive breed, the farmers having been tempted to part with their brood mares at high prices, and the best stock having thus in process of time been taken out of the county. Much of the old grass land has been broken up to support the other- wise failing rents of needy landlords, and as it was then « called on” as long as it would carry anything, without being either drained or manured, it is rapidly passing into the same sterility as the other parts of the farm for whose rescue it was broken up. The scanty stock thus yearly becomes diminished ; there being little or no green crops cultivated, the hay and straw consumed by half-fed cattle is converted into wretched manure: the crops annually fall off in produce as well as price: and the only kind of produce — milk and butter — that keeps its price, is got in lesser quantity from an abridged extent of grass land. The system of management generally followed is what is here denominated “two crop and fallow,” a bare summer fallow being given every third year, followed by wheat, and that, after receiving a dressing of such manure as the farm- yard produces, is succeeded by oats. To vary the crops, beans Norta Ripinc.| FALLING OFF IN PRODUCE. 327 are sometimes taken on part of the land instead of oats; and occasionally a portion of the oat crop is sown out with clover. On some farms one-half remains in permanent grass, and on these the farmers are enabled to keep more stock and to work their land at less cost comparatively. But generally the quantity of stock is inconsiderable; and the quality as well as the quantity of manure being inferior, from the deficiency of winter food, the arable land is year after year becoming less productive, and the tenants, as a matter of course, less able to meet their engagements. Many farms are being given up, and even with liberal abatements of rent it is impossible for the tenants, under such circumstances, to go on. Like all cold wet clays, there can be no chance here for either tenant or landlord without effectual drainage. With that and some timely support there is much to encourage an enterprising farmer. Milk sells at 2d. a quart in the populous towns along the river and on the coast, and the demand for dairy produce at remunerating prices is constantly increasing. The farms are small, and the tenants generally not an enterprising class, nor possessed of adequate capital for the extent of land they occupy. Many landlords in Cleveland are availing themselves of the drainage loan, and within the next two years a very great extent of drainage will be accomplished; indeed, so much alive are the proprietors of land in Yorkshire to the necessity of this operation as the foundation of all other agricultural improve- oD 5D sum than has been allotted to this county, and each individual is therefore restricted to a certain proportion of the sum for ments, that they have already applied for a greater aggregate which he has applied. The present time is most favourable, in every view, for proceeding with the work. ‘The general employment which it diffuses over an agricultural district comes at a peculiarly appropriate time, when the farmer's necessities, in many cases, lead him to dismiss part of his labourers. There is likewise a great reduction in the cost of pipes for drainage, arising from the introduction of better xa 4: 328 DIMINISHED COST OF DRAINAGE. [Norra Riinc. machines and greater skill in the workmanship. Two-inch pipes, which very recently in this Riding cost 25s. per 1,000, can now be supplied for 15s. Drains are made from 3 to 4 feet in depth and from 18 to 36 feet apart, according to the nature of the soil, and at an average expense altogether of from 32. to 41. per acre. A very few years ago the same operation would have cost double these sums. The Government loan is re- payable in 22 annual instalments of 63 per cent., which repays both principal and interest. A few landlords charge their tenants 5 per cent. of this annual sum, and themselves pay 1}. Most frequently the tenant is bound to pay the whole, and, in addition, to cart the tiles free of charge. And we are sorry to say that more than one instance exists in Yorkshire, where the landlord charges his tenant 73 per cent., thus putting into his pocket 1 per cent. besides securing a permanently higher value for his land by an outlay to which he does not contribute a single farthing. This grasping conduct, so utterly at variance with the intention of the Legislature, is quite unworthy the character and position of a respectable landlord. In our letter from the West Riding we referred to a custom, existing in the southern part of it, of compensation to the out- going tenant for certain acts of husbandry and unexhausted improvements, or, as they are more briefly termed, “ tenant right.” In no other part of Yorkshire have we met with this custom; and we have not the slightest hesitation in saying, that any dispassionate observer who will compare the state of farm- ing in that part where it exists with the general average farming of the East and North Ridings, where it never has existed, will at once affirm that it has not produced a better style of farming. On the contrary, the farming of the southern division of the West Riding is not to he compared in any single point with that of the wolds of the East Riding, or the better farmed lands along the Ouse and Humber, or in Holderness, or the North Riding, And we were assured by an extensive farmer of much experience in the West Riding, Norra Riv1ne. | ABUSES OF TENANT RIGHT. 329 who has himself had to pay this tenant right, and is therefore familiar with its operation, that it leads to frauds of every kind, —which in truth cease to be counted frauds, inasmuch as the party who suffered at his entry feels himself justified in retali- ating on his successor. Instances have been known of toll-men being bribed to sign for false quantities of manure as having passed through their bar; and it is quite common to secure the services of a valuator not according to his character for skill and justice, but mainly in reference to his skill in getting up and carrying through a “good” valuation. One absurdity of the system is, that five “ dressings,” or preparatory ploughings and harrowings, are as a matter of rule charged against the last turnip crop, though very possibly two or three such dressings at the utmost are all that a skilful farmer would himself bestow. So sensible are the valuators of the haphazard nature of their awards, that they, in rendering their account, specify each item for which a charge is made; but, to prevent un- necessary questions, they put down no sum opposite to that item, contenting themselves with a single and lump sum for the whole at the last. 330 LETTER XXXVIII. DURHAM. RAPID INCREASE OF POPULATION — APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY — GREAT CAPITAL INVESTED IN COAL MINES—SLOW PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL, AS COMPARED WITH MINING ENTERPRISE — COURSES OF CROPS— DENTON FARM —TWO-CROP AND FALLOW SYSTEM DETAILED—REDUCTION OF RENT NOT SO EFFECTUAL HERE AS AN INCREASE OF CROPS — EXPENSE OF DRAINAGE — COAST-SIDE FARM — EXCELLENT AND PRODUCTIVE MANAGEMENT — PRO- DUCE OF CROPS—STOCK—ADVANTAGES OF THE SYSTEM. Duruan, Dec. 1850. Tue county of Durham is not much more than half the area of the North Riding of Yorkshire, while its population is a third more numerous. In 1841 it exceeded 324,000, and, from the great extension of the collieries since that time, there has no doubt been a rapid increase of population, the increase during the preceding ten years having been 27 per cent.— with one excep- tion the greatest in England. Its surface is of an irregular and very hilly character, except along the north bank of the river Tees, from which, widening towards the sea, a considerable tract of rather level country extends. Its peculiar conformation is favourable to picturesque beauty; and though to the railway traveller its chief features may seem a succession of engine chimneys, lines of coal waggons, great fires of coal waste, and numerous shabby tile-roofed villages—the roads through the different valleys of the county skirt along streams, not always limpid, but often shaded by venerable woods, encircling the ancient feudal castles of the nobility, from the highest tower of which they still display their banner. Raby, Winyard, Lambton, Lumley, Ravensworth Castles, and others, occupy sites of great beauty, generally placed half-way up the hill, backed by wooded DurHAM. | THE COAL FIELDS. Sal heights, and commanding a prospect of the cultivated valleys beneath them. The geological features of the county comprise the red sand- stone on the north bank of the Tees, next the magnesian lime- stone, extending from Darlington in an easterly direction to Hartlepool, and thence north along the coast to Tynemouth. Within this comparatively narrow strip lie the valuable coal measures, which commence near Staindrop in Durham, and extend northwards to the mouth of the river Coquet in North- umberland. The whole western boundary of the coal measures is formed by a tract of millstone grit; and beyond this lies the mountain limestone, the green hills of which yield excellent pasture for sheep. The larger proportion of the arable land of the county is of a tenacious character, sometimes a thin infertile clay, and nearer the banks of the rivers a deep strong loam. Along the coast the soil is of a more friable nature, yielding sound crops of excellent potatoes, turnips, and other vegetables, which find a ready market in the neighbouring seaport towns. Unlike Lancashire and the West Riding, the coal fields of Durham have not led to the establishment of a great manufac- turing population, the coal being wrought principally for export to London, and to the east coast and continental ports. In this business large capitals are employed, partly by speculators, but principally by the great landowners themselves, whose incomes, like those of Lords Londonderry and Durham, are chiefly derived from coal. To give an idea of the capital employed in this business, we may mention that Lord Londonderry, for the convenience of his own trade, constructed the harbour of Seaham at a cost little, if at all, short of 300,000/, and to this harbour he has about forty miles of railroad leading from his different collieries. The return from capital invested in working coal has been so much more remunerative than land, that im- provements on the latter have been comparatively neglected, and the skill and enterprise so abundanly lavished below ground form a very marked contrast with the absence of those 332 RELATIVE PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE AND MINES. [Duruam. qualities and the evident defect of capital everywhere too con- spicuous on its surface. To show the different progress made in the two departments within the last eighty years, we may mention that the system of farming practised in 1770, viz., “two crop and fallow,” as described by Arthur Young, with a yield of sixteen bushels of wheat, and thirty each of oats and barley per acre, is exactly the common practice of the present day, with a yield rather diminished than increased. Let us turn to the coal trade, and see its progress. For the coal waggon roads then “the track of the wheels was marked with pieces of timber let into the road, for the wheels of the waggons to run on, by which one horse is enabled to draw fifty or sixty bushels of coals.” These roads led to the shipping ports. As in pro- cess of years the trade increased, “ Keels” were employed, with light draught of water, enabling them to penetrate many miles up the tidal rivers to wharfs at no great distance from the collieries, to which the wooden tracks (gradually superseded by iron rails) conducted. The progress of business, and the discovery of steam power, have in their turn nearly done away with the keels, and the consequent expense of transshipment; and thou- sands of tons of coal are now more cheaply and expeditiously taken from the mouth of the coal pits and laid in the holds of sea-going vessels, than hundreds, or probably even tens of tons, were slowly and laboriously dragged by horses along the wooden tracks described by Arthur Young. The four-course system of husbandry is common on the friable soils on the northern side of Teesdale, though on many farms of this description, owing to the indolence of the farmer, a large proportion of the green crop division is managed with bare fallow. The stiff land of the county, which, as already mentioned, forms its greatest proportion, is managed on the two crop and fallow” system. The coast lands, and the farms within the influence of such towns as Sunderland, Shields, and Neweastle, are probably the best managed in the county. We shall describe the practice on a farm in each of these various Se Duruan. | TURNIP AND GRAZING FARM. 330 localities, in order to present to the reader, as concisely as pos- sible, a view of the present state of farming in Durham. The first and last examples are confessedly much in advance of the average in their respective neighbourhoods. The farm of Denton, some six miles west of Darlington, was purchased by the Duke of Cleveland, two years ago, from the late Mr. Culley. It has been occupied by the present tenants, Messrs. Heslop, for the last fifteen years, and contains 490 acres of land—380 of which are under cultivation, and about 110 in grass, 80 acres of which are prime feeding land. The four-course, lengthened to a six by introducing a pease crop, on account of the uncertainty of red clover, is the system adopted over the farm, a portion, which is strong land imper- fectly drained, being annually in bare fallow. The Northumber- land five-course has been abandoned, as the second year’s grass was found greatly to encourage the growth of “ twitch.” Two- thirds of the turnip land are now sown with swedes, which receive, in the ridge, ten tons of dung and two ewt. of guano per acre. These are all drawn for consumption in the yards and boxes. On the weakest land white turnips are sown, which are eaten on the ground with sheep. Wheat follows the pease stubble, the land receiving ten loads of dung per acre; it is also sown after bare fallow, and after white turnips, and such part of the swede land as is cleared early enough in the season. Barley and oats are sown in spring after swedes and clover ley. Wheat yields from 32 to 40 bushels, barley 40, and oats about 60 bushels an acre. A changing stock of cattle and sheep are kept on this farm, part of the cattle being bought in April, and sold fat at Christmas; and a second lot, kept on till June and July, are sold into the West Riding, where a good demand at that time exists for the “ Feasts” which are then held in the manufacturing districts. our hundred half-bred Leicester and Cheviot hoggets are bought at Stagshaw in April, fed on “seeds” during the summer, and finished on white turnips in autumn, whence they are sold in lots as they become ready. Between wool and increase of carcase these sheep leave for 334 BOX FEEDING. ([DurHamM. eight months’ keep 20s. each on an average. They receive no cake or extra feeding. The cattle are grazed in summer on the old grass lands, and part fed in open sheds and courts, and part in loose boxes in winter. In the latter the cattle are found to make de- cidedly more progress, with less waste of food than in the open yards and sheds. But the boxes, though very com- modious, are extremely costly, 300/. having been spent in the construction of boxes, with turnip and straw houses, for twenty cattle. Water is provided by pipes for each animal, and in future it is intended to occupy the boxes in summer as well as winter with house-fed cattle. This farm was taken in 1835 by the present tenants at 9002 a-year, wheat then selling at 4s. 6d. a bushel. In 1839 prices had risen, and the rent was then increased to 1,100/. The farm is tithe free. On this rental it was bought by the Duke of Cleveland two years ago; and there are many farms on his Grace’s old estate in the neighbourhood, of equally good quality, let for a third less rent to hereditary tenants, who have hitherto raised their easy rent with little exertion; but who, content with that, and secure in their holdings, have made no endeavour to improve their farms; and, while they have neither enriched themselves nor their landlord, have done nothing to enlarge the field of employment for an increasing population of labourers, nor con- tributed any greater produce to the extended requirements of the country. The “two crop and fallow” system is that which prevails over all the strong undrained land of the county; and draining, we regret to say, is still greatly neglected. The system is of two kinds— either simply (1) fallow, (2) wheat, (3) oats, or of that and the following improvement combined: (1) fallow, (2) wheat, (3) clover. This combination gives (1) fallow, (2) wheat, (3) oats, (4) fallow, (5) wheat, (6) clover; or one- third of the farm bare fallow, one-third wheat, one-sixth oats, and one-sixth clover. The land intended for fallow is seldom ploughed before February, by which time the ameliorating Dornan. | COLD CLAY FARMING. 335 effects of severe frost on this heavy soil must be lost, or nearly so. After receiving the usual repeated ploughings and harrow- ings during summer, the land is commonly limed, and then ridged up in 10-feet mounds, well gathered and rounded, to carry off the water. On this the wheat seed is sown broad-cast in autumn, and receives no further attention till the following harvest. During next autumn and winter, the manure from the farm- yard, such as it is, is spread over the stubble and ploughed in. In spring the land so prepared is sown with oats. The oat stub- ble hes till February, when it is ploughed ; and the same routine of bare fallowing is pursued during the summer. The wheat crop this time receives no manure; and, in spring, clover seeds are sown with it, which next year are mown for hay. The clover root is broken up in February, again to undergo a bare fallow. No roots are cultivated, and no purchased manure or food made use of. The farms are small in extent, the farmers hard-working and industrious, but without means, and strongly prejudiced in favour of their old ways, though these have yielded them no- thing but ill-requited toil. They keep very little stock, which being ill fed, the manure made on the farm is merely rotted straw. The yield of their wheat crop may be from 12 to 20 bushels an acre,—15 being a full average for the undrained lands; and their oats from 20 to 30 bushels. But it is quite obvious that even these meagre crops are likely, under a con- tinuation of the same management, to become gradually lessened ; for there is a constant abstraction from the soil without any cor- responding return of manure. The rent of such land varies from 10s. to 16s. an acre; and the tithe and rates may be 3s. 6d. an acre, more. A simple calculation would show that such crops cannot pay, even at considerably higher prices than the present, and that here the difficulty is not one of rent, but of produce. A shilling a bushel added to the price of wheat would only increase the farmer’s returns 15s., whereas an increase of produce from 15 bushels the present crop, to 25 bushels an acre, would make a gain to him of four 336 COAST SIDE FARM. [DuRHAM. times that sum. It must therefore be a wise course for a judi- cious landlord to promote, as much as he can, the improved culture of his estate; for he can have no hope of any balance being left for rent until such an increase be attained. The first step to this is thorough drainage; and, fortunately, clay can be got in all places where it is most needed, and the cost of coal’ for burning it for drainage pipes, in Durham, is a mere trifle. We have seen instances in the county, where cold clay land, laid up in high, crooked ridges, has been completely drained by the use of two-inch pipes, placed from three and a half to four feet deep, and the distance between each drain eight yards, the drains being carried in parallel lines, quite irrespective of the ups and downs of the old crooked ridges. The cost of this operation over an extent of 2,600 acres, on one estate drained during the last two years, has averaged 4/. 10s. an acre. Our next example is one of the coast farms, where the ma- nagement and results present a very remarkable contrast with the “two crop and fallow” system just described. Seaham Hall farm, near the harbour of Seaham, is occupied by Mr. At- kinson, and extends, with the adjoining glebe-land, to 480 acres, about 60 of which are in permanent grass. Part of it is still undrained, a stiff strong soil, which in that state is managed with bare fallow ; but as soon as the drainage is effected, fallows are dispensed with, and the regular system of the farm carried out there as on the more friable soils. On one field of this heavy land, which was only drained last spring, there is now growing an excellent crop of swedes, estimated by the tenant at 28 tons an acre. The rest of the farm, which is naturally well adapted to green crops, or has been rendered so by drainage, is managed in the following manner:— (1) clover, (2) potatoes, (3) wheat, (4) turnips, (5) potatoes, (6) wheat, sown out with “seeds.” The clover root is ploughed up in autumn, cross-ploughed in spring, and, after being harrowed, the land is drawn out into ridges, 28 to 30 inches apart, into which from 16 to 22 loads of dung per acre are placed, and € Dornan. ] DETAILS OF GOOD FARMING. 337 the potato seed planted. The land is wrought in the usual manner during summer, and the crop is raised and stored in long narrow heaps, covered with straw, and a light coating of earth to exclude frost. The potato crop is followed by wheat, the ground being first ploughed, and the seed either drilled in or sown broadcast in little ridges formed by the single plough, in which it grows up very much in the same manner as when drilled. The action of the single or ribbing plough, with which one man and horse can go over an acre and a half of ground per day, is believed to pulverise the soil better, and secure for the seed a more genial bed, than any other preparation. The seed —red and white wheat, mixed in equal proportions — is sown at the rate of six pecks an acre, between the 20th of November and Christmas, the latter period being the favourite time for wheat-sowing along the coast. Wheat again follows the potato crop, receiving the same dress- ing of guano as before; but the downy Essex seed is now used, as it is found not to lodge, and is therefore more favourable for the clover seeds which succeed it. The mixture of ‘ seeds” sown is 8lb. red clover, 2lb. white, and two quarts of rye grass per acre. These are sown among the growing wheat crop in spring, and mown the following year for hay. The average Z 338 FREQUENT APPLICATION OF MANURE. [DuruamM. produce of wheat is from 32 to 40 bushels an acre; of potatoes, 5 to 6 tons since the disease; and of swedes, 28 to 35 tons an acre. The potatoes and wheat are sold off the farm, the swedes and clover consumed on it. Seventy head of cattle, 50 of which are fed fat, are kept on the farm, and 300 sheep, prin- eipally half-bred hoggets. The farm is managed with seven pairs of horses. The rent and tithe amount to 650/., and the rates are 1s. per pound. The leading features of this management are that four-sixths, or two-thirds, of the land are in well manured green crops, and two-sixths, or one-third, in white corn crop. The successive ereen crops keep the land clean and friable, and render the farm comparatively cheap, both in manual labour and horse work; seven pairs of horses could not under other circumstances ac- complish satisfactorily the work of a farm of this size. Then, not only are the green crops heavily manured, but the inter- vening wheat crops also. In five out of six years the soil receives an annual application of manure. The farmer is thus enabled to grow the most valuable crops — potatoes and wheat —for sale, and swedes and clover for consumption. He can sell two-thirds of the annual produce of his arable land without injuring the farm, because he restores to it a full equivalent in manure. Comparing the returns of this six-course with those of the “ two crop and fallow ” system, there is a difference more than adequate to meet the increased charges of higher rent, labour, and manure, and, when all these are deducted, a hand- some balance remains for interest and tenant’s profit; whereas the whole produce under the latter system cannot, at present prices, pay the expenses of cultivation, without leaving a farthing for rent or tenant’s profit. —— ass —————— 339 LETTER XXXIX. DURHAM — continued. IMPOSSIBILITY OF THE TWO CROP AND FALLOW SYSTEM PAYING WITH, PRESENT PRICES — AN INCREASE OF PRODUCE THE ONLY REMEDY — LORD LONDON- DERRY’S PROPOSALS — THEIR EFFICACY EXEMPLIFIED — CHEAP FEEDING SHEDS — LORD DURHAM’S ESTATE — LORD RAVENSWORTH’S — VICINITY OF NEWCASTLE — LARGE HOME DEMAND FOR AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE — ADVANTAGE OF PREPARING FOOD FOR HORSES — THE MODE OF PREPARA- TION AND MIXTURE OF FOOD— BREEDS OF CATTLE — DUKE OF CLEVELAND'S ESTATE — HEREDITARY TENANTS. Duruam, Dec. 1850. THe usual system of cultivation practised by the clayland farmers of Durham is, as already mentioned, a “ three-course,” viz. —(1) fallow, (2) wheat, (3) one-half oats and one-half clover. Nearly the whole of the fallow is managed as a dead fallow, there being very little green crop cultivated. Occa- sionally this rotation is prolonged by pasturing the clover a second year. The live stock is quite inconsiderable. Three cows and six young cattle to 100 acres may be about an average stock for the clay farms. As this stock is badly win- tered (24 acres of inferior turnips per 100 acres being the average extent of the turnip crop), the home supply of manure ean be neither rich nor plentiful. To meet rent and the ex- penses of cultivation, the farmer’s sole dependence is on his wheat crop, a little also being received from that portion of the hay crop which he sells off the farm. As a general rule no manure, except lime, is purchased. That is laid upon the bare fallow in preparation for wheat. The system is very exhausting ; a bare fallow, stimulated by lime, is sown with wheat, which is followed by oats or hay. Each return of this rotation further reduces the soluble properties of the soil, as these are not re- stored by the small quantity of inferior manure applied in nearly the same proportion in which they are abstracted. The Zz 2 340 DIMINISHING PRODUCE. [DurHAmM. same farm which thirty years ago averaged from 20 to 24 bushels of wheat, and 30 to 36 bushels of oats per acre, is now, under this process, reduced to 14 bushels of wheat and 18 to 20 bushels of oats. One farmer assured us that his oats did not last year average more than 10 bushels an acre. Diminishing produce and lower prices are producing their natural effect. The rents vary from 11s. to 16s. an acre; tithe and rates 3s. 6d. an acre more. The evil here is not high rents, but defective produce. If the farmer paid no rent, he could not continue this system with present prices, and have a profit. 