"When the female part of a farmer's family is unemployed, (and, without a dairy, that must be the case throughout great part of the year) dissipation, folly, and extravagance, take the lead, and domestic care and industry are entirely forgotten. Gentlemen of fortune should therefore set their faces against the practice, and resolve never to let an estate to a farmer whose family was too proud, or too indolent, to undertake the management of the different departments thereof."

This peculiar trait of practice belongs to the butter-dairy of South Somersetshire, West Dorsetshire, and East Devonshire. It will be seen, however, in the further review of the Southern Department, that the practice is not confined to that tripartite district. See also Wiltshire, p. 227, aforegoing.

SHEEP. Breed and Breeding.-P. 254. "In the SouthEast part of this district, the sheep are an improved" (?)" sort of the Dorset, and many considerable ewe flocks are kept to the amount of four to six hundred each; they begin lambing about Christmas, and the lambs are weaned in May."

P. 242. (after speaking of fatting sheep.) "Ewes and lambs are also the stock of some farmers; they are purchased partly in the autumn in lamb, and partly in the spring with the lamb by their sides, and are mostly of the Dorsetshire or Mendip breed."

Folding Sheep.-P. 254. "Some farmers buy wedder lambs about Midsummer (shorn) and keep them about twenty-two months, constantly folding them: they are then sold (unshorn) to the graziers occupying the marsh lands."

P. 255. "The number of sheep kept in this district is immense, and folding unremittingly pursued."

Fatting Sheep.-P. 241. (in continuation of the above account of fatting cattle.) "Others fat two-years old wedders of the Dorsetshire and Somersetshire breed. The Dorset sort are purchased about Michaelmas, at Sherborne and Stolford fairs, price from twenty shillings to thirty shillings. No hay is given in the winter, unless the weather be uncommonly severe, or the ground covered with snow. They are sold fat between February and May, and weigh from twenty to thirty pounds per quarter. A few oxen accompany the sheep, which are bought in the spring, and fatted the ensuing winter. It is the universal opinion, that sheep are not so profitable stock as oxen."

RETROSPECT.

There are few circumstances that have occurred to me, in prosecuting my present undertaking, which have given

me

me more concern than that of pointing out,-in conformity with the principle that I have, throughout, deemed it my duty to observe,-some of the striking defects of Mr. Billingsley's Report of South-east Somersetshire.

Those deficiencies, however, may perhaps be thus accounted for. That part of the County is situated at a distance from the district in which Mr. B. resided; and where, I understand, he was, at the period of his survey, actively employed in an extensive line of business;-and every man who has attempted to examine, with due attention, the various practices of an extent of country, with the view of bringing before the public eye a Report of the leading facts and attendant circumstances belonging to them,-must be very sensible of the length of time, and mature attention, which such an undertaking imperiously demands. Should it be asked why Mr. Billingsley accepted the appointment, it might be answered, and I believe truly, Mr. B. was desirous to do a public good, without being aware of the time and attention which the task would require.

DORSETSHIRE.

DORSETSHIRE.

DORSETSHIRE comprizes four descriptions of coun

try; three of them bearing distinct agricultural characters; one of them being, nearly, an entire district; namely,

"The VALE of BLACKMORE" (as it is uncouthly called); which is situated almost entirely within the County of Dorset; a narrow part of its northwestern margin, only, extending into Somersetshire.-The towns of Wincanton, Shaftsbury, and Sherborne are seated on its borders, and Sturminster near its center. The waters of the river Stour are principally collected within its vale lands; some of which are of a superior quality.The VALE or DISTRICT of STURMINSTER, or the GRAZING DISTRICT of DORSETSHIRE, would surely be a more appropriate name for those valuable lands, than that which they now bear.

The CHALK HILLS of Dorsetshire form the western extreme of the extensive range of calcarious heights, which I have, heretofore, named the Western Division of the Chalk Hills of the Southern Counties;-the Wiltshire and Hampshire Downs being a continuation, eastward, of the same range.

The DAIRY QUARTER of Dorsetshire is merely an extension of East Devonshire; of whose singular cast of surface it partakes.

The SANDY LANDS of Dorsetshire,-the DISTRICT OF WAREHAM, constitutes the fourth distinction.

1793."

MR. CLARIDGE was, I believe, a partner, if not a

pupil, of the late Mr. KENT. He was of course well versed

in the business of Estate Agency.-His QUALIFICATIONS, as a Reporter of agricultural concerns are less evident. We meet with very little, in the production under view, which manifests the author's experience in that most difficult art. His observations on the practice of professional men, however, must necessarily have been considerable.

Regarding his method of collecting information, Mr. Claridge has been almost singularly ingenuous.-P. 48. "The preceding information respecting the county of Dorset, has been collected by me, partly from twenty years experience in the cultivation" () "and management of landed property in that county, as well as in most parts of England; and by a tour made through it, on purpose, in the course of the month of September last, in which I endeavoured to collect all the intelligence I possibly could, from many gentlemen and farmers, who assisted me with their best information, and to whom I am obliged for their service and assistance in this business, and shall not fail to state their names to the Board of Agriculture whenever opportunity offers."

The most striking defect, in the Report under consideration, is want of digestion, or methodical arrangement: a sin, however, which, in my creed, is not deadly. Saving a few distinct heads, ill associated, the whole matter may be said to be thrown together, miscellaneously; without chapters, sections, or other divisions.

An apology, perhaps an allowable one-may be made for that and other defects. The original Report of Dorsetshire was one of the very first that was printed. And to those who know how the early Reporters were spurred and goaded, as if the appointment of the Board had been but for a few months, weeks, or days,-a thousand deficiencies may appear to be excusable.

The number of pages-fortynine.
No engraving..

NATURAL ECONOMY.

EXTENT

XTENT.-P. 5. "Dorsetshire is a maritime County of about one hundred and sixty miles in circumference; in length, from east to west, about fifty-five, and in breadth from North to South, about thirty-five, containing about 775,000 acres of land."

That extent Mr. Claridge subdivides according to the several existing states of its lands, at the time he wrote. On what ground the estimates were made does not appear.

P. 5. "The greater proportion of the land is in pasfurage, ewe leas, or downs for sheep, of which the followi ing proportions are estimated in round numbers, (viz.) 250,000 Acres in tillage.

50,000

90,000

9,000

290,000

86,000

water meadow.

pasture.

woods and plantations.
ewes leas and downs.
uncultivated or waste.

775,000."

SURFACE.-P. 6. "The greater part is uneven ground, and much of it very hilly; it has chiefly a high cliff towards the coast, and a very small proportion of marshy or fenn land.”

WATERS.-P. 6. "It has three rivers, (viz.) The Stower, the Piddle, and the Froome; the Stower, which is by much the most considerable, runs quite across it, from the vale of Blackmoor to the sea, by Sturminster, Blandford and Winborn-Minster. The Piddle, from Piddletown and Bere-' Regis, to Wareham: and the Froome from the country north of Maiden Newton, by Dorchester to Wareham! The two latter are much divided in many places, into a variety of small streams, by the branches of which, great advantage is derived in watering of the meadow land through which they pass."

SOILS.-P. 6. The soil is mostly shallow, upon a chalk bottom, a large proportion of it very poor, but some parts of it (particularly the vale of Blackmoor) extremely rich." P. 17. "The country north of Sherbone, which adjoins the vale of Blackinoor, affords some of the best arable land in the county. The soil is a stone brach, very easy to work, and about three parts in four, are ploughed." FOSSILS.-P. 6. "It possesses great quantities of stone,' chalk, lime and pipe-clay."

Portland Stone.-P. 41. "As to quarries, the whole island: of Portland seems to be one intire mass of the most beautiful stone, chiefly used in the metropolis and elsewhere for the most superb buildings, and is-universally admired for its close texture and durability, surpassing any other. The raising of it, is a laborious business, sometimes employing upwards of a hundred men, to break down a large jam of it, afterwards it is divided into blocks, and then conveyed in cars by horses to the shore."

"There are many proprietors of quarries in the island," but those called the King's quarries, which belong to the crown, are by far the most considerable; from thirty to forty

R 2

thousand