manufactures, and fuel, are not able to support them, what else can there be to induce speculators to plan and execute them?

P. 556. "Notwithstanding the advantages of iron railways with respect to facility and motion, this road does not appear to be much used, nor is it probable that railways will ever come into general use. The expense attending the formation of them, except where the ground is naturally level, is enormous; and it is evident that the advantages, and consequently the gain, are confined to carriage in one direction. The iron rail-way from Croydon to Wandsworth, lies in the neighbourhood of so many extensive manufactures, that it may possibly answer; but the division from Mestham to Croydon, running through a tract of country destitute of manufactures, and having only the lime, fullers'-earth, stone, and corn to depend upon at the further extremity, can never pay very well."

SUBJECT THE THIRD.

RURAL ECONOMY.

ESTATES

TENANTED ESTATES.

STATES.-P. 73. "There are no very large estates in Surrey it is supposed, that the largest does not much exceed 10,000l. per annum; and there are but few which reach near to that annual rent. The yeomanry in Surrey are by no means so numerous as they are in the adjoining county of Kent; though in the western part of the county, round Guildford, and in some parts of the Weald, there are several gentlemen who farm their own estates, of from 200l. to 400l. per annum."

TENURES.-P. 76. "The tenures in this county are principally freehold; there is not much copyhold. In the Weald of Surrey, Christ's church Hospital possesses a considerable estate. There is also, in different parts of the county, a good deal of land held under church leases."

IRRIGATION. Nature, as has been intimated, has forbade an extensive use of this practice, in the County of Surrey. The chalk hills are mostly narrow, and throw out but a small, portion of calcareous water,-compared with those of Hampshire, Dorsetshire, and Wiltshire. Nor are there flat moory bottoms to receive it; as in those Counties; down which the copious streams flow leisurely, yet with sufficient descent to keep their currents alive.

The waters of the Wey and the Mole are noncalcareous, excepting so much as the latter may imbibe in its conflict with the chalk, at the foot of Box Hill. The Wandle is the only collected stream, which flows in the County, that is specifically adapted to the purpose of irrigation; and this, as has been shown above, is rendered in a manner useless, by mills of manufacture.

By the subjoined notice, however, it appears that, in the Godstone quarter of the County-the southeastern corner of it-where the principal branch of the Medway has its rise, some slender branchlets that are fed by the filtered water of the chalk hills, are, or were, applied to that purpose.-P. 516. "In the south-eastern corner of the county, in the parishes of Godstone, Oxted, Tanridge, Lingfield, and Crowhurst, irrigation appears formerly to have prevailed more, and to have had more attention paid to it than at present.

DRINKING POOLS.-P. 82. " Chalk is also used, especially on the hills, to line the drinking pools; great care is taken to render the bottoms of these water-tight, in the following manner: after a lining of chalk, half a foot thick, has been laid and rendered even and firm by being well beaten down, a mixture of pounded chalk and hot lime is spread over it, and this is repeated, till all the crevices or holes are filled up; thus, not only is the water prevented from oozing out, but the attacks of worms are prevented."

MANAGEMENT of Landed Estates.-Managers.-P. 74. "The management of most of the estates in this county is in the hands of attorneys; that is, the drawing up of the leases, the insertion of the terms and covenants, and the superintendance of their execution during the currency of the lease, are committed to their care. This has been long the subject of much and general complaint-in some respects, justly; but certainly in other respects, without the least foundation."

P. 75. "It is as absurd to employ an attorney to frame the agricultural covenants of a lease, or to constitute him the sole judge of their observance or breach, as it would be to give into the hands of a farmer, the charge of putting the covenants into the technical language of the law."

TENANCY.-P. 98. "Most farms in Surrey are lett on leases: the duration is generally for twenty-one years, though some are only for seven or fourteen years. A few farms are lett for three lives; the lease being renewable, generally on the payment of one year and a half's rent; sometimes two years' rents are paid, besides the usual fee to the steward of the manor. Church lands are commonly lett for twenty

ne

one years, renewable every seven. There are, however, some extensive farms in this county, which are held without a lease, from year to year, entirely at the will of the landlord; and this custom is rather upon the increase in Surrey."

RENT.-P. 91. "If we except that part of Surrey which lies within the influence of the London markets, the rents of this county may be considered as low. The best lands, that is, the hazel loam, on a subsoil of chalk, and the rich sandy loams near Godalming, run from 25s. to 30s. per acre, where the leases have been granted within these last ten years. The clays of the Weald are in general very low rented; many farms there being lett for 10s. per acre, and few of them reaching 20s. The clay land in the other parts of the county is lett from 15s. to 20s. per acre. On the chalks, above the hazle loam, where the soil is thinner, the rents run from 16s. to 20s. per acre. When we come within seven or eight miles of London, the rent rises considerably, running from 40s. to 31. Still nearer the metropolis, the ground that is possessed in small quantities by cow-keepers, nurserymen, &c. letts for 6., 8., and sometimes 10%. per acre."

REMOVALS.-P. 107. "The usual term of entry to the arable farms in Surrey, is at Michaelmas; the outgoing tenant keeping possession of the barns till the May fol lowing."

WOODLAND S.

THE Reporter has furnished a long chapter on the Wood

lands of Surrey; more particularly concerning those of the Weald or Southern Vale Lands of the County. In registering the rural economy of the Southern Counties, I paid what I considered to be due attention to their Voodlands, in various situations; most especially to those of the "Weald of Sussex;" which is intimately united with that of Surrey; they being similar parts of one and the same widely extended vale.

Such passages of the Report now before me, as I may judge will throw additional light on the general subject, I will transcribe into my present Work. The matter at large is much too diffuse for insertion, here.

P. 424. "There are many reasons for the belief, that the Weald of Surrey was formerly an entire wood, and that it was cleared and cultivated at a much later period than the other parts of the county."

This suggestion, I think, is highly probable. I will extend it a step farther, and say,-from what arose to me, in examining the Vale of Horsham, in 1791, it struck me

that

that the wide-spread woodlands, which it evidently once contained, formed the last, of the forests of England, which reached the agricultural state.

In traversing its site, I saw the remains of some of its posts; which, tradition said, formerly stood across it," as guides to letter carriers," and doubtlessly to other travellers. Other wide forests, it is probable were supplied with similar helps. And hence, possibly the expression of sending letters by the post (a contraction of posts) at this day.

COPPICE WOODS.-Species.-P. 426. "These consist principally of the oak, birch, ash, chesnut, sallow, hazel,

and alder."

Filling up Coppice Grounds.-P. 427. "This is done by cutting the shoot about half through with a bill: the shoot thus cut is laid along the ground; at each of the joints a cut in the direction of the bough is made, over which a little fine mould and turf are laid; the shoot is kept close to the ground by means of pegs. At each point, the shoot that is plashed will take root, and throw out several saplings. As soon as the shoot that has been plashed appears to have taken sufficient root in each of its points (which generally happens in two or three years), it is entirely separated from the parent stool."

This valuable practice I have observed. For filling up small vacancies, with the native woods that happen to grow on their immediate margins, the practice is highly eligible. But where the vacant plots are large, and especially when more valuable woods are desired, the Kentish practice of sodburning the surface, and digging the ground as for a plantation,—is required.

The wares of coppice woods, in Surrey, are the same as in Sussex.-P. 429. "The following are the principal purposes to which copse-wood is applied, arranged according to the comparative profit they bring :-Hoops; gunpowder charcoal; charcoal for other purposes; poles of the largest size, for hop-plantations; hurdles; faggots; kiln-faggots."

P. 435. "The woodlands in the other parts of Surrey contain, in general, a greater proportion of coppice, and fewer timber trees, than those we have been considering in the Weald: this is more particularly the case on the chalk-hills of the county. The kinds of wood in the coppices are much the same as in the Weald: the uses to which they are applied are also similar, except that charcoal is much more frequently made from the underwoods of the Weald, than from those of the other parts of the county. Stakes, edders, hurdles, hoops, and faggots, are the principal products of the copse-woods now under consideration.

consideration. As we approach the metropolis, the underwoods are cut at much shorter periods than at a greater distance from seven to ten years is the usual age of felling, at the distance of 15 or 20 miles from London.

"Besides the coppice that grows along with the timber, there are in most parts of the chalk-hills what are deno minated shaws:' these are small spots of copse-wood, unmixed with timber. They are found to be very advantageous while growing, as shelter for the sheep; and are used, when cut down, for hurdles, &c."

WOODS.-Draining.-P. 437. "The most commendable part of the management of the woodmen in the Weald of Surrey, is that which respects the draining their woods: the soil is so retentive, and the surface so inadequate to carry the water off, that this practice seems to have forced itself in a manner, upon their notice and adoption, as the only method of preserving their woods from destruction: and from the great and evident good effects produced by keeping the surface dry, under-draining has been employed, with results equally beneficial, in many parts of the Weald."

Raising Woods.-P. 438. "By some of the most experienced and successful woodmen of the Weald, the following method is pursued. The field in which it is intended to sow the acorns, is completely summer-fallowed; and during this operation it is thoroughly cleaned of all root-weeds, and has a good dressing of manure and sometimes of lime given it. At the last ploughing it is ridged up so as to keep it as dry as possible during the winter. Wheat is then sown in it at the usual season; and after the wheat is well harrowed in, acorns are put in with a dibble, at about one foot distant from each other. When the wheat is reaped the ensuing autumn, the seedling oaks are not sufficiently high to be cut or injured by the sickle; the stubble serves as a kind of protection to them during the winter."

Sowing the acorns at the same time the wheat is sown, and harrowing them in, together, is much preferable to dibbling them in; especially on a tough retentive soil, such as the oak delights in. The holes formed by the dibbles are liable to hold water, and thereby to rot the acorns; which can scarcely be deposited too loosely and shallow in the ground.

Mr. S. touches on the disputed subject of whether oaks should be raised from the seed, or be transplanted; and quotes (p. 439.) what he considers as a case in point,in favour of planting. But the case quoted proves nothing. The seedlings, that sprang up in the wood, among the

interwoven