part of the old trees, which ought to be removed as soon as enclosures shall be made to protect the future growth. There are some thriving trees, which, if preserved from injury, would, at no great distance of time, become useful for the Navy; and the underwood, which must always find a ready sale in London, would yield a larger fund than would be required for the payment of the officers necessary for the care and protection of the property of the Crown." INLAND NAVIGATION.-For some account of water carriage in Essex, see the article Waters, p. 168, aforegoing.

ESTATES

STATES.-Purchase.-V. II. p. 417. " At the sale of the late Mr. Rigby's estate, Walton-hall, of 326 acres, 60 of them marsh, with 750 acres of salting, over which the tides flow, were sold to Mr. Bernard, the tenant, for 18,000Z.; this is, the 386 being worth 318. per acre at thirty years purchase, and the 750 acres given in for nothing.

"Hare-hall, near Romford, one hundred and sixty-six acres, seventy-eight of them grass, the rest arable, for which 31. per acre was offered, sold, with a good stone house, for 14,500%. sterling-twenty-eight years purchase.

"To multiply the cases would be needless; I found throughout the county, that the value of the soil, fairly rented, was in 1805 from twenty-eight to thirty years purchase."-Thus far we are furnished with appropriate re

port.

P. 418. (in continuation.) " Now it is remarkable, that in 1770 I noted and published the price, which was thirty years purchase.

This fact, and the same has been found throughout the kingdom, appears to me a very extraordinary one, supposing it to run parallel with a great depreciation in the value of money."

This is writing as if the author really believed that there is a radical connexion, between the number of year's purchase of land, and the nominal value of money;-as he wanders nearly two pages, further, in pursuit of the idea.— See my YORKSHIRE V. I. p. 29.

WOODLANDS.

WOODLAND S.

IN a chapter, headed "Woods and Plantations," we

find an undigested mass of materials, collected from various sources of information; by which we are led to the general idea that South Essex, apart from its forests, abounds in woodlands. But nothing of consideration, as to the specific nature or management of its private woods, nor any estimate of their aggregate extent, appears.

For a valuable document, relative to the forests of Essex, see Appropriation, p. 171, aforegoing.

AGRICULTURE.

PLAN of MANAGEMENT.-(In the "Roodings.")—V. I.

p. 5. "The standard husbandry of the whole is crop and fallow; that is, 1. Fallow; 2. Wheat; 3. Fallow; 4. Barley; which singular husbandry is universally contended for as the most profitable; and although every farmer perhaps in the district has what is called etch (that is, after) crops, yet the quantity is so restricted by leases and agreements, that the variations make no considerable exceptions. Some clover, pease, tares, and a few beans, are scattered about the country; but the generally prevailing features are white corn and fallow."

Having, in passing through these volumes, met with little to engage my particular attention, I seize with greater avidity the subjoined interesting narrative of facts, found in the Reporter's section, " Wheat."-V. I. p. 267. "Several years past I found Mr. Taylor, of Wimbish, making a very considerable improvement; he had for some years thought, that the spirit of fallowing was not in this country attended by effects adequate to the exertions made, which induced him to try beans, with particular attention to mark the result; his experiments were so satisfactory, that he every year increased the quantity; from four acres to twelve, to twenty-five, to forty, to sixty acres, as he became gradually convinced that he not only gained a produce of itself very valuable, but at the same time prepared for wheat with a success perfectly to his satisfaction. His crops of beans this year are very good; and I thought his wheat, which succeeded the last year's crop, equal to the best on a fallow -preparation. He is of opinion, that the horse-bean much

exceeds

exceeds all other sorts, because, growing vastly higher (even to eight feet), it covers the land more.

66

Having applied to Mr. Taylor for his further remarks, I had the following note of his present opinion:

"I do still continue the cultivation of beans to a certain degree, but not on so large a scale as formerly; the greater part of my arable lands have been planted with them once, and some parts twice and thrice: the result is, that they do not produce so well the second and third time, (even although the same care and expense is incurred), as on the first time of planting them upon the same land; therefore, I conclude my soil is not altogether adapted to a regular rotation of bean crops, as a substitute for fallow, but will do occasionally very well; and what confirms me in that belief is, the land is left much more foul after the second and third trial on the same land, than it was on the first."

I must not forbear to observe, here, that, had this zealous and ready writer, been in the habit of referring back to the practices of his novitial informants, after they had acquired several years of experience, before he sat down to publish their improvements, he would have saved his readers much unprofitable labor, and time ill spent; and inexperienced students many misleadings from the right road of prac

tice.

WORKING ANIMALS.Management of Cart Horses.-V. II. p. 351. "Among the best farmers in Essex, I found them very generally in the system of keeping their horses in warm well littered yards, with sheds for them to retire under. Into these they are turned at night, and kept in them day and night when not worked. Mr. Ketcher, of Burnham, has one for his cart-horses in common, and another for mares and foals.

"Mr. Wright, of Rochford-hall, has a yard into which horses are turned every night; nor is there a shed in it. His teams have not stood in the stable for ten years.

MANURES. Chalk.-The following notices, respecting this prevalent manure in South Essex, are interesting. They appear to have been reported with due consideration.

V. II. p. 203. "This manure has been largely used in Essex for time immemorial; but I found it carried in the Hundreds near forty years ago, in much larger quantities than at present. As the country became chalked, less was of course wanted; and of late years a prevalent idea has spread almost every where, that it answers badly when spread a second and a third time. In many districts, it is now only used in composts."

P. 206. "Considerable quantities of chalk are brought

from

from Kent by sea to Maldon, and the farmers take it some miles by land; but chiefly by the inland navigation: it is brought to Hatfield, but more to Tolesbury: they mix it with earth and dung."

P. 207. "The larger part, perhaps the whole of Mersea Island, has been chalked; at present, what is carried is chiefly on to the heavy land. Mr. Bennet Hawes has clean chalked land a second time, and it answered well.

"There is a circumstance relative to this manure, which should convince us that our fathers had more knowledge in matters of husbandry than we are sometimes ready to admit. It was a very old saying, that chalk is good for the father but bad for the son, and that there is some truth in the maxim, is strongly felt in Essex. Mr. Western, in describing the husbandry around Kelvedon, used this expression relative to the opinion of farmers on this manure, they hate old chalked lands; such are worn out.

"At St. Lawrence, in Dengey hundred, the fact came still nearer to ascertainment. Mr. Pattison assured me, that the strong soils on a stiff clay upon their hills, would lett readily at 20s. but if old chalked land, at only 15s. nor is there, he said, any question of this fact."

P. 209. "Mr. Beauvoir's father at Downham, who died in 1757, disapproved very much of his tenants chalking their lands; and discouraged it all he could, without an absolute prohibition. He had seen many cases in which the first chalking had great effects for one lease, and after that the land was sure to be considerably the worse for it, and would not at that time of day lett so well as land that had not been chalked, though the liberty to chalk were precluded. When done, and exhausted in consequence, which was the usual event, it required many years to recover."

Gravel, as a Manure.-V. II. p. 221. "Mr. Sperling, of Dynes-hall, in Great Maplestead, has greatly improved some pieces of spungy land, loose hollow sandy loam, by laying from sixty to eighty loads per acre of gravel on it.". -The specific quality of the said gravel is not mentioned.

Nightsoil.-V. II. p. 241. “Mr. Newman, of Hornchurch, has found that this manure for pasture is, of all other sorts, the most capital; two waggon loads an acre, at 78. besides carriage, are beyond every thing, and secure a carpet of herbage. On corn land, he thinks it forces straw too much."

ARABLE CROPS.

BEANS.-V. I. p. 362. "I was assured that there is a large field at Walton, which produced beans and wheat for thirty-six

N

thirty-six years; and that another field was known to produce one year thirteen quarters and a half of beans per acre, by some accounts; by others eleven and a half."

POTATOES.-V. I. p. 382. "At Ilford, where I made inquiries concerning the cultivation of potatoes, for which that neighbourhood is so famous, the favourite potatoe was formerly the red-nosed kidney, which is now neglected, because it is almost sure to be curled. The champion is now very generally preferred, which does not curl. The preparation is an autumnal ploughing, dunging in the spring, about fourteen loads an acre, which cost 58. a load, spread on the field just before the second ploughing, on which they plant. Immediately after the plough, a man dibbles across the land, followed by a woman who drops the sets, for both which operations they are paid 78. or 88. an acre; the rows twelve inches by fourteen or fifteen, and some twelve square. Early in the spring, sixteen or eighteen hundred weight are planted on an acre; they are hand-hoed twice, each time at the expense of 48.; they are dug up with three-pronged forks, and picked carefully clean. The product is from eight to fifteen tons an acre, when the crop stands to full perfection; but great quantities are taken up in summer, when the product is not so considerable."

P. 393. "The hundred weight of potatoes is 126 lbs.; a ton therefore is 2520 lbs. or 36 bushels, at 70lbs. per bushel; eight tons are 288 bushels."

P. 391. Mr. T. Pittman, of Barking, is one of the greatest potatoe planters in the kingdom, if not the greatest. Has generally from two to three hundred acres; soil a shallow loam on a gravelly bottom; burns in a hot summer. He had 300 acres last year, which, when the exertions and expenses necessary be considered, must be admitted as a business of almost unexampled extent and vigour. What would a Kentish man say to 300 acres of hops? Yet the expenses of potatoes are fully equal to those of hops. He never attempts them without dung; that from his yards, mixed with what is brought from London (not nightsoil, as it makes them scabby); the state in which he prefers it is that of heat; to spread it as hot as possible: the dung now in his yard cannot be used till March; but hot will then go as far again. This expression plainly implies long dung; not, however, fresh, for it has undergone a mixture in order to get a heat; the heat destroys all weeds; in two or three months it is fit for use, but the time depends on the weather. The dung being turned in by one ploughing, the sets, 16cwt. per acre, are dibbled in on every furrow at nine or ten inches apart, and lightly har

rowed;