farm service. And, now, 1816, that the fervor has abated, and, especially, that the works of Agriculture are likewise on the decline! the old and the young, there is too much reason to fear, are crawling in crowds to the workhouses.

Straw being a species of farm produce, it may seem to be proper, in a work on Agriculture, to describe the method of raising it to the greatest perfection, as a material of manufacture.-P. 223. "The straw from stony and heavy land, like that of Essex, will not do for plaiting; and if a crop produces much straw fit for plaiting, the produce of the corn is generally bad: weak straw under hedges and near trees, does best. They give 2d. 3d. and 4d. a pound for it, and sort it themselves."

A grove, therefore, let it be suggested, is the most elegible site for perfecting this high-priced production!

WORKING ANIMALS.-Under the head, "Horses," we find a few journal notices, respecting farm horses. But the only information that requires admission, here, relates to the practice of keeping them in the stable, throughout summer, and feeding them, there, with green herbagesillily termed "soiling:"-a practice which, it is probable, had its rise in the Southern Counties.-The Secretary says, p. 199, "I found it general in every part of the county; and it certainly forms a feature of uncommon merit in the husbandry of Hertfordshire: I know not any district where it is equally general. The farmers are clearly decided in the great advantages attending the practice; not only in supporting the teams in the cheapest manner, but also in raising large quantities of very valuable manure."-The species of herbage, chiefly employed, in this practice, are tares and clover.

In a section, entitled "Horses and Oxen compared," is seen a lengthened string of opinions, respecting this disputed point of practice. But no instructive conclusion is drawn from that mass of information. The subjoined is the leading paragraph.

P. 199. "The use of oxen in husbandry is not a common practice in any part of the county; in general, it is confined to gentlemen farmers, the case in many parts of the kingdom; and a circumstance which tends to throw much doubt upon the question of comparison in ascertaining which is the more beneficial team."

I have carefully examined the contents of that section; without having been able to discover any thing that is sufficiently new or excellent to require transcription.

IMPLEMENTS.-The same remark equally applies to the chapter bearing this title ;--the subjoined notice excepted.

P. 43. "Oil-cake Mill.-The Honourable Mr. Villiers has at Aldenham, a roller turning under a hopper, with stout teeth, for breaking oil-cake, in order to feed beasts, which answers its purpose well."

MANURE.-P. 157. "There is no part of the kingdom in which this branch of husbandry, every where so important, is more generally attended to; or where exertions in it are more spirited. When the quality of the soil is compared with the products it yields, it will be apparent that manuring alone must occasion a disproportion so very great between the soil and the crops; the latter being very superior to the soil. The fossil manure of the district, and the expensive additions from London, are used on a very extensive scale."

Chalk. It is this valuabe species of manure that distinguishes the established practice of Hertfordshire. The other species, there in use, are common to the environs of the Metropolis. This, therefore, is the legitimate subject of report, concerning manures, from that County.

The different qualities of the Hertfordshire chalks, with the methods of raising and applying them, have been fully and satisfactorily given by Mr. Walker. See p. 15, aforegoing. What remain to be added, here, are the varying opinions of "gentlemen farmers," concerning the virtues of this fossil, as a manure, and the soils and crops to which it is most applicable. Some of those opinions are futile and others contradictory. The prevailing idea appears to be that chalk is beneficial to gravelly soils, by "cooling" them, and to clayey lands, by making them "work" better.

P. 161. "Mr. Whittington remarks, that chalk used as manure, is, for some time, bad for wheat, though good for every other crop; and considerably the most useful on land that burns, as gravel: it is of little benefit on cold wet soils. On land subject to sorrel, chalk is a sovereign cure, killing that weed speedily: a circumstance favourable to stock as well as to the soil, for it is very unwholesome for sheep: he has several times lost lambs by their eating it, as it gives them a cholic. He finds fifteen loads of chalk per acre, and repeated once in ten or twenty years, much better than a larger quantity at once."

P. 162." Colonel Dorrien, at Berkhamsted, carts some hundred loads of chalk, in the autumn, into his farm

yard

* We are, however informed, in p. 163, that "chalk is much used about Beachwood, in the proportion of from 20 to 40 loads an acre: it lasts ten or twelve years, and does best on wet loamy land; but this sort requires more frequent chalkings than any other. It does well on clay, and lasts longer."

.yard, to fodder upon, and then mixes the chalk with the dung.”

"Mr. Cotton, of Hempstead, thinks also, that it does most good on gravels: there is, however, much uncertainty in its effect. He once chalked a field of clay, and it did not bear a good crop of corn afterwards, for some years; but a neighbouring farmer did the same thing, and got a fine crop of wheat the first year; yet wheat is sometimes apt to be hurt, from the chalks being broken up by by the frost, and consequently, by the wheats being rendered light and root-fallen. It is agreed, that land chalked, wants the more dung on that account."

The retrospective observations of the Reporter, on this point of the Hertfordshire practice, are evidently the result of mature reflection on the subject.

P. 164. "Upon the whole, I must observe, that this husbandry, which is general through the county, has considerable merit; but the great singularity, is the long established practice of drawing it up by shafts, and barrowing it on to the land. Those who have been accustomed to the marle-carts of Norfolk and Suffolk, know what severe work to the teams, that business always proves; and what a most heavy expense attends it. Horses of great value are often lamed or destroyed, and the purchase of carts and harness, with the wear and tear of both, form very heavy articles. The Hertfordshire custom is therefore much to be preferred. One objection is obvious; so soft a substance as marle or clay (compared with chalk), could not be trusted to for chambering under-ground, without great danger to the workmen. The discovery of some plan to obviate this, would be of so much advantage as to render it an object of much interest to the public; nor do I conceive the thing difficult to be effected by moveable arches of timber-work, to be raised as the men advance. A good mechanic would easily contrive such, and the object highly deserves attention: marling and claying would be much promoted among many farmers, particularly small ones, who at present fear to undertake it. Two or three pounds an acre could be easily afforded by men who could not set any regular claycarts at work for want of a scale of business proportioned to such teams, &c."

Concerning the catalogue of TOWN MANURES that are in use, in the several Counties adjacent to the metropolis, a large mass of memoranda is collected. I will insert here, such of the particulars as appear to be entitled to preservation.

Soot. This would seem to be a prevailing topdressing of wheat, throughout the County.

P. 165.

P. 165. "About Barkway, they have a very high opinion of it; 50 bushels an acre, brought 30 miles from London, is seen on wheat to an inch."

"I question whether there is a parish in it, in which some men are not in the habit of using this manure from London."

Lime.-P. 165. "I know from experience, and it seems "universally agreed, that chalk lime (and no other can be "used in Hertfordshire) does not exceed chalk itself in any proportion to it expense, so as to give encourage"ment to burn it, unless it be in parts where chalk is far "distant*"

Ashes. Here, as in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, &c. ashes are sown over clover. But the species or quality of them is not mentioned by this Reporter.

P. 165. "Mr. Byde esteems ashes as a manure that acts by opening and loosening the soil, but that they do not feed a crop. 37

Bones.-P. 167. "This is a manure much esteemed in Hertfordshire; but the price has risen so high of late years, as much to restrain its use. They were formerly 88. or 98. a chaldron; but are now 16s. at London. They are considered as best for pastures when burnt; but for arable elay better when only boiled. This manure, especially when the bones are only boiled, is the most durable of those commonly used in Hertfordshire."

Nightsoil.-P. 171. "Of all the manures which Mr. Cassmajor, of North Mims, brings from London, none equal this: he lays three cart-loads an acre, at 10s. 6d. a load, and spreads it dry with a shovel. The effect is great. It is much used about St. Albans.

"Since the canal, this valuable manure has been introduced at Berkhamsted,"-twentysix miles from London.

Dung.-P. 173. "At St. Albans, Hatfield, &c. many poor persons employ themselves in picking up dung on the turnpike-roads, which they sell to the farmers at 2d. a bushel. Mr. Clarke, of Sandridgebury, buys large quantities, spreading 180 bushels per acre for turnips.

"Mr. Chapman, of Hitchin, has observed, that, about Baldock, they carry out their dung in a remarkably long state, without rotting, and yet they get as good turnips as any where. (!)

"Mr. Roberts, of King's Walden, would always, on every account, carry stable-dung long and fresh to the land, but thinks that farm-yard manure should be turned up once, yet not kept too long." In this there is much good sense.

MS. Annotations, J, HUTCHINSON."

Sheepfold

Sheepfold.-In the section Farms, p. 26, the Reporter says, "the general predilection for the application of the sheepfold, is more universal in this county than in any other with which I am acquainted."

P. 168. "The best dressing (compass, as it is called in Hertfordshire) which Mr. Byde has ever observed for wheat, is top-folding even so late as May, with sheep fed with oilcake in troughs"

P. 175. Mr. Smith, at Clothalbury, at the distance of 39 miles from London, used to bring down much soot and trotters, not then keeping many sheep; but he has since left it off, from being convinced that it did not answer so well as dressing by sheep; and he has greatly increased his flock."

P. 194. "In the clay district of the county, Mr. Byde remarks that sheep have been too much lessened. Of all the common manures, he considers the fold as the best; and he has observed in many farms the general appearance of the crops decline, as the number of sheep kept has lessened.

"At the Hadhams, every man folds the sheep which he keeps a little farmer will even set four hurdles, if he has not sheep for more.

"Good as the manure of the fold is, Mr. Chapman has found by trial in the same field, for turnips, that yard-dung was much better than both fold and malt-dust together.

"Mr. Roberts, of King's Walden, thinks nothing is equal to the fold: he never reckoned it worth less than 40s. per acre, corn being cheap; but of late much more: he folds two poles of ground with 20 sheep.

"Mr. Sedgwick, of Rickmersworth, is clearly in favour of folding on all farms."

Atmospheric Melioration-P. 174. "Manuring in general. -At Sawbridgeworth," (25 miles from London)" on the clays. and strong loams, the farms are not large, and few sheep are kept. The cattle are by no means numerous, and chiefly cows for suckling; nor do the farmers bring manures from London; little is therefore effected by this branch of management. To make amends for its want, they exert themselves greatly in tillage, fallowing very often."

Here, fallowing seems to be considered as a species of melioration;—as a substitute for manuring!

TILLAGE.-The Reporter's section "Tillage" is void of interest. In that of "Fallowing," we find the subjoined moderate remarks,-free from passion and prejudice,-cool considerate Report.-P. 61. "Under this bead I am happy to have but a word to insert-The fallow system, except in a very small district, and in open fields, is not much pursued in this county. Wherever turnips can be sown, we find them;

D.