On large farms, at least, it is convenient, if not necessary, to have some cottages within them,-with inmates over whom the occupiers have a degree of command. The Archdeacon's plan, and the practice of Scotland, are in direct opposition.-See NORTHERN DEPARTMENT, p. 370.

I must not pass over the Reporter's dissertation on cottages and cottagers, without noticing a hint relating to cottage pigsties.-P. 115. "Where it is not convenient or advisable to let him have land enough for a cow, he may have a large garden, and the necessary and pig-stye should be so placed, that the soak from them may be directed to manure the soil. The pig-stye should have a small court, to open into the garden only. When a pig is bought, it is small, and can be carried to the stye, where it may remain. I have found this the only way of preventing the labourer's pigs from wandering about a village. If the stye opens to a road, it will never be so well guarded as when the first act of trespass must be in the owner's garden."

A hint on cottage gardening is also well given.-P. 210. (by the Reporter) The dwarf-pease should be given among the labourers by those who can procure the seeds, as they bear well, and want no rods."

OCCUPIERS.-N. P. 123. (by Mr. Price) "The Shropshire farmers, in general, are very industrious. There are few of them but what work hard along with their servants. Their grain is generally extremely well cleaned for market. In the women's department, in the farm-houses, there seems to be a greater exertion of industry than I have remarked in most other counties. Besides brewing, baking, providing for the family, where workmen are maintained in the house, and managing the dairy, the farmer's wife, with the assistance of her maid-servants, in the evenings, and at spare hours, carries on a little manufacture, and gets up a piece of linen cloth for sale, every year."

PLAN OF MANAGEMENT.-P. 123. (by the Reporter)"The scope of Shropshire farming is perhaps less confined than that of many other counties. The farms, generally speaking, are arable, grazing, for hay, for the dairy, rearing, and feeding. There are some pigs, some sheep, some colts; though the proportion of these several objects varies from situation. As to further marks of character, they are probably as various as man. The slothful and the industrious; the indolent and the enterprising; the hard-hearted and the benevolent-may be in the same proportion as in other counties, under the same degree of

improve,

improvement; for the dread of innovation, or the aversion to experiment, subside, as the profit of new systems is felt, or the advantages of practiced skill are perceived; and how far the spirit of improvement is introduced, it is the purport of the different Sections to explain. In all parts of this county, examples of superior husbandry may be met with. There are few breeds of cattle, or few me chanical improvements, but what may be found within the county. Several gentlemen, as well as farmers, have gone to great expense in importing them from other counties. And perhaps where, from natural causes, the husbandry is the worst, there is the greatest local collection of both. I mean the succession of improved breeds, and of improved farming instruments, that have been, and are, at Kinlet-hall, situated between Bridgnorth and Cleobury Mortimer. The immediate neighbourhood appears to have improved by the example set, and the information communicated to them. And if the eastern district of the county is in general better cultivated than any other spots of equal size, it must be recollected, that it is nearer to an improved part of the kingdom: the soil is more easily managed, from its lightness, because less strength is necessary to plough with, more seasons are suitable to work in, and there is less occasion for draining." How unlike is the language of this extract to that of pure science.

J

Mr. Lloyd, in p. 125, censures the farmers of Shropshire, for being" too much tempted, and detached from agriculture, to carry for hire upon the road." This, however, can scarcely happen, to a serious extent, unless in mining districts.

Succession. P. 170. (by the Reporter) "To estimate the value of the improved husbandry, we should look at that which was not unusual formerly, and even specimens of which may now, or could lately have been met with in this county, viz. fallow, wheat, oats for two years, the second year's crop being sown with clover, and which clover was suffered to remain two or three years, whilst fresh land, or a clover-ley of three years growth was broken up for oats or a fallow. If barley was introduced, it was after the wheat and before the oats. Some unfayourable situation, formerly under this course, have lately, by a proper application of manure, been successfully varied with turnips and barley."

WORKPEOPLE.-P. 139. (by Mr. Flavel)-" At present (about 1795) I give my labourers 14d, a day all the year;

R

when

when the hay-harvest commences, I allow them meat and drink until the end of corn-harvest. I allow each man two quarts of small beer till harvest, and then six quarts each of harvest beer, exclusive of small beer at meals, I agree with my workmen to thrash most of the wheat and barley by task, at 6s. the score wheat, and 3s. the score barley.

66

N. B. The harvest beer is one bushel of malt to eleven gallons, which is always brewed in October."

Again (by Mr. Tench, in 1795)-P. 139. "The rate of wages is from 61. to 91. per annum; price of labour, from the close of corn-harvest till hay-harvest following, Is. 2d. per day, and two quarts of beer; though much wheat is set to thrash at 6s. per score, thirty-eight quarts to the bushel, with two quarts of beer per day, and barley at 3s. per score; during the hay-harvest the price of labour is 1s. 6d. per day, with six quarts of beer; but a considerable quantity of hay is set to mow at 1s. 10d. per acre, with six quarts of beer: for the corn-harvest the price of labour is from 9s. to 12s. per week, with meat and beer, though great part of the wheat is set to reap at 5s. per acre, with meat and beer. From the close of corn-harvest, till hay-harvest following, labour begins at six in the morning, and ends at six at night; and when hay-harvest commences, from five in the morning till seven or eight at night: and during the corn-harvest from daylight till night."

In the section "Hogs."-P. 267. (by the Reporter) "A greater proportion of labourers fed a pig formerly than at present; though those who are industrious and rear plenty of potatoes, contrive still to kill a bacon pig in Winter. One reason why labourers have not a pig so frequently as heretofore, may arise from their buying flour or bread, instead of wheat. Farmers who refuse to sell wheat in small quantities, act very improperly, for the labourer who can buy wheat, gets better bread than he can otherwise procure, and he has the bran towards feeding a pig."

WORKING ANIMALS.-On this subject, we find numerous remarks, by different hands, in the volume under Review. But scarcely one of them is entitled to special attention. Both oxen and horses are in use; but chiefly the latter.pp. 263 & 4. The Reporter is evidently in favor of oxen (from different parts of his work) in preference to horses. No evidence, however, appears of his having had sufficient. experience of both, to decide on their comparative value.

Mr.

Mr. P. speaks, with feeling, on the barbarous practice, which still prevails in Shropshire, of docking cart horses, and "the cruel custom of setting the horns of oxen."

The only extractable passage, on this topic, is from Mr. Powys's paper, in the Appendix. Mr. P. occupies on a scale sufficiently large to acquire adequate experience. But his paper is written in the manner of a tyro in agriculture, rather than in that of an experienced farmer. The passage alluded to is this:-P. 363. “I think cows are much more useful and beneficial than oxen, and that it would be an advantage to the kingdom if few or no oxen were reared. The uses of cattle are to work, milk, and feed. I have seen barren cows work as well as oxen; they require less keep, and walk faster. Oxen are of no use to the dairy, and they will not feed so fast as cows."

How far this plan may be eligible, in large undertakings, I will not attempt to decide. Small working farmers, who keep a few cows, and who are unable to support horses, sufficient to work their lands, properly,-might, doubtlessly, receive, on many occasions, essential benefit, from working their cows. It has long appeared, to me, a matter of astonishment that they should neglect so obvious a mean of immediate profit.

MANURES.-P. 233. (by Mr. Tench)" Dung and lime, or a compost of dung, lime, and soil, are used. Sometimes soot and malt-dust is sown on meadow or pasture land: two years ago, soap-ashes were much used, but now the price of them is advanced as high as 8s. per ton, at which price they will not answer for manure, but are sold to go to the glass-houses."

P. 233. (by Mr. Lloyd) "The manure most in use, is lime, with which every part of this county is tolerably well supplied. It is principally spread upon arable land, and by that means the farmer can reserve the dung for the grass. Lime, whem mixed with peat, will consume it to ashes; and was this practice to become common, an admirable manure for grass-lands, or young clover, would be procured."

P. 232. (by Mr. Harries)" Lime is purchased at the different works in this county, for about 10s. or 12s. per waggon-load of from 40 to 50 bushels, and large quantities of it are used throughout the county."

P. 235. (by the Reporter)" Turf is sometimes cut upon Clun forest, in May or June, and burned. The ashes are used as a manure for turnips, ten cart-loads to an acre."

Mr. Reynolds, in a note on "Soils and Surface"p. 47, says "this pale-coloured clay has the local and technical name of dye-earth; and though, where it lies deep, it is of a blue colour, yet, when near the surface, becomes a pale yellow, from the oxydation of the iron it contains: it consists of 26 parts of calcareous earth, 58 ditto argil, 16 silex and iron. Might it not be used on the sandy lands on the banks of the river between Bridgnorth and Worcester, as a manure? This dye-earth is stratified, and contains marine impressions."

This earth being met with, in immense quantities, in sinking coal pits, (see p. 200,) and containing, by the above analysis, more calcarious earth, than many of the marls in use,-sufficient experiments ought, surely, to be tried with it, as such.

TILLAGE.-P. 162. (by Mr. Harries)" Though summer fallows are by no means so frequent as formerly, yet they are used on our strong lands, preparatory for wheat, if after a stubble it is generally ploughed over before Christmas, and has at least three more ploughings in the course of a summer; if, upon a clover ley that is foul, it is grazed in the spring with sheep, and the first ploughing not given before the month of June, and there is afterwards sufficient time to work and clean it. Sometimes the clover is mowed, and a tolerable good fallow is made previous to October. Though summer-fallows are not so frequent, turnip fallows have increased in a much greater proportion upon our dry soils that are not too strong."

Mr. Cotes, in two letters to Lord Carrington (at that time President of the Board) relates an extraordinary discovery which, he conceives, "may be an effectual means of contributing to the ample supply of the country."— The substance of his plan is this.-P. 164. "Plough a wheatfallow in two, three, or even four, bout-ridges, dependent on the foul condition of the land. In the furrow put some dung, on that dung place the potatoe-sets, and then plough a bout upon them; a ridge thus formed, gives a double portion of earth for the plant to grow in, and it has the benefit of the dung to root in. This applies to that part of the land which bears the crop, and which will form so many rows. The remaining part of the land will form so many alleys, in which, during the summer, the common operation of the plough will make the fallow: and thus crop and fallow be had, without injury to the land."

Now, this is precisely the COMPOST FALLOW which I for

merly