Page images
PDF
EPUB

and instead of running out the land in the mode I have described, perceive the advantages arising from supplying it with proper manure, and introducing green crops between the crops of grain."

are

WORKING ANIMALS.-P. 34. "Horses and oxen generally both used for the plough, throughout this county as well as Devon. The country very hilly, not admitting the use of carts, the horses are wanted for some carriage or another, and are almost always under the pack-saddle. The plough team is sometimes four oxen, and sometimes only two, with always one or two horses as leaders before the oxen, with a man or boy to drive them."

P. 46. "We have already mentioned that carts are not made use of in this county. Every thing is carried on the pack-saddle," (no) "for which both horses and mules are used. Mules have lately come greatly into use, particularly for carrying and recarrying the produce and supplies of the mines; for which great numbers are wanted, and they sell at a very high price. Sixteen, eighteen, and twenty guineas are given for a mule. The common horses are small, but very hardy, and well adapted to a hilly county."

MANURE.-P. 36. "In the eastern part of Cornwall, near the sea, and the rivers, they bring lime-stone from Plymouth, which they burn with culm from Wales, and use each as a preparation for wheat. Afterwards the best farmers use a compost of sea sand, pilchard salt, dung, and the rotten slaty earth, as a preparation for turnips; afterwards lay down with barley, for grass seeds. They use from eighty to one hundred bushels of lime, and from one hundred and fifty to two hundred horse seams of compost.

"The manure produced from the bruised and decayed pilchards, and the Bay salt already used in curing the pilchards, and declared by the salt-officers unfit for farther use, is purchased by the farmers, and consisting of oil, salt, and putrified fish, is a most excellent dressing for land. It is purchased from eight-pence to one shilling the bushel, consisting of two Winchesters, or sixteen gallons.

"This is the best of all manures, and the cheapest, as it goes farther than any other; is lighter in carriage, and lasts very long. It is mixed like lime, with earth sand, in various proportions, as it is easy or difficult to be procured, from forty to sixty Winchesters, to one hundred and fifty or two hundred seams of sand and earth; it is left to ferment and incorporate with the sand and earth, and the whole frequently turned over and mixed, before it is laid on the land.

"After

wholly uninclosed, consisting of marshy grounds," "intermixed with rocks and mountains, and in the west, with extensive tracts of waste land, almost plains. This third and last part is almost wholly dutchy land."

P. 58. "I am persuaded that there is, at the very lowest calculation, 100,000 acres of waste lands in this county, which may be valued at seven shillings and six-pence per acre, which would produce an annual rent of 37,500l. per annum, and leave a sufficiency of turbary for fuel, if properly regulated."

FARMS.-P. 31. "Farms are in general very small. In the eastern and more fertile parts, rents, in general, do not exceed thirty or forty pounds per annum; the greater part not above ten or fifteen pounds per annum; some few are as high as 1007. and from that to 2001. per annum. All the farms are generally on leases of lives. In the western and mining districts they are very small indeed, chiefly cottage holdings."

OCCUPIERS.-P. 13. "Cornwall possesses the happy advantage of a numerous and public spirited body of gentlemen, who are alive to the improvement of their native county. The people of Cornwall also possess a great degree of perspicacity and acumen; they attend to new improvements: if they find them successful, they are not slow in imitation."

PLAN OF MANAGEMENT.-P. 33. "The management of the land is uniform; here and there an exception will be found. The whole is convertible, sometimes into arable, and sometimes pasture. Arable is sown with wheat, barley, or oats, as long as it will bear any; and then grass for eight or ten years, until the land is recovered, and capable again of bearing corn."

"The best farmers take only one crop of barley after wheat, and lay down with grass seeds, which they dress with dung and earth, and after four years break up again; but in general, with all those lands that are at a distance from their farm-yards, they pursue the same negligent mode above described. They sow them with oats, or barley, as often as they think it will pay the expence of the tillage; and very often, when they have little more than the seed returned, which so impoverishes the land that it cannot be broke up again to any advantage, but remains in furze and brambles for twenty-five or thirty years, reducing it to a dry gritty substance, little more than a caput mortuum.

"While truth demands that I must state this process as the general routine of managing the land in the county of Cornwall, it is also but justice to state, that there are many who pursue a liberal and enlightened course of husbandry,

and

and instead of running out the land in the mode I have described, perceive the advantages arising from supplying it with proper manure, and introducing green crops between the crops of grain."

WORKING ANIMALS.-P. 34. "Horses and oxen are generally both used for the plough, throughout this county as well as Devon. The country very hilly, not admitting the use of carts, the horses are wanted for some carriage or another, and are almost always under the pack-saddle. The plough team is sometimes four oxen, and sometimes only two, with always one or two horses as leaders before the oxen, with a man or boy to drive them."

P. 46. "We have already mentioned that carts are not made use of in this county. Every thing is carried on the pack-saddle," (no) "for which both horses and mules are used. Mules have lately come greatly into use, particularly for carrying and recarrying the produce and supplies of the mines; for which great numbers are wanted, and they sell at a very high price. Sixteen, eighteen, and twenty guineas are given for a mule. The common horses are small, but very hardy, and well adapted to a hilly county."

MANURE.-P. 36. "In the eastern part of Cornwall, near the sea, and the rivers, they bring lime-stone from Plymouth, which they burn with culm from Wales, and use each as a preparation for wheat. Afterwards the best farmers use a compost of sea sand, pilchard salt, dung, and the rotten slaty earth, as a preparation for turnips; afterwards lay down with barley, for grass seeds. They use from eighty to one hundred bushels of lime, and from one hundred and fifty to two hundred horse seams of compost.

"The manure produced from the bruised and decayed pilchards, and the Bay salt already used in curing the pilchards, and declared by the salt-officers unfit for farther use, is purchased by the farmers, and consisting of oil, salt, and putrified fish, is a most excellent dressing for land. It is purchased from eight-pence to one shilling the bushel, consisting of two Winchesters, or sixteen gallons.

"This is the best of all manures, and the cheapest, as it goes farther than any other; is lighter in carriage, and lasts very long. It is mixed like lime, with earth sand, in various proportions, as it is easy or difficult to be procured, from forty to sixty Winchesters, to one hundred and fifty or two hundred seams of sand and earth; it is left to ferment and incorporate with the sand and earth, and the whole frequently turned over and mixed, before it is laid on the land.

"After

wholly uninclosed, consisting of marshy grounds," (?) "intermixed with rocks and mountains, and in the west, with extensive tracts of waste land, almost plains. This third and last part is almost wholly dutchy land."

P. 58. “I am persuaded that there is, at the very lowest calculation, 100,000 acres of waste lands in this county, which may be valued at seven shillings and six-pence per acre, which would produce an annual rent of 37,500l. per annum, and leave a sufficiency of turbary for fuel, if properly regulated.”

FARMS.-P. 31. "Farms are in general very small. In the eastern and more fertile parts, rents, in general, do not exceed thirty or forty pounds per annum; the greater part not above ten or fifteen pounds per annum; some few are as high as 1007. and from that to 2007. per annum. All the farms are generally on leases of lives. In the western and mining districts they are very small indeed, chiefly cottage holdings."

OCCUPIERS.-P. 13. "Cornwall possesses the happy advantage of a numerous and public spirited body of gentlemen, who are alive to the improvement of their native county. The people of Cornwall also possess a great degree of perspicacity and acumen; they attend to new improvements: if they find them successful, they are not slow in imitation."

PLAN OF MANAGEMENT.-P. 33. "The management of the land is uniform; here and there an exception will be found. The whole is convertible, sometimes into arable, and sometimes pasture. Arable is sown with wheat, barley, or oats, as long as it will bear any; and then grass for eight or ten years, until the land is recovered, and capable again of bearing corn.'

"The best farmers take only one crop of barley after wheat, and lay down with grass seeds, which they dress with dung and earth, and after four years break up again; but in general, with all those lands that are at a distance from their farm-yards, they pursue the same negligent mode above described. They sow them with oats, or barley, as often as they think it will pay the expence of the tillage; and very often, when they have little more than the seed returned, which so impoverishes the land that it cannot be broke up again to any advantage, but remains in furze and brambles for twenty-five or thirty years, reducing it to a dry gritty substance, little more than a caput mortuum.

"While truth demands that I must state this process as the general routine of managing the land in the county of Cornwall, it is also but justice to state, that there are many who pursue a liberal and enlightened course of husbandry,

and

and instead of running out the land in the mode I have described, perceive the advantages arising from supplying it with proper manure, and introducing green crops between the crops of grain."

are

WORKING ANIMALS.-P. 34. "Horses and oxen generally both used for the plough, throughout this county as well as Devon. The country very hilly, not admitting the use of carts, the horses are wanted for some carriage or another, and are almost always under the pack-saddle. The plough team is sometimes four oxen, and sometimes only two, with always one or two horses as leaders before the oxen, with a man or boy to drive them.”

P. 46. "We have already mentioned that carts are not made use of in this county. Every thing is carried on the pack-saddle," (no) "for which both horses and mules are used. Mules have lately come greatly into use, particularly for carrying and recarrying the produce and supplies of the mines; for which great numbers are wanted, and they sell at a very high price. Sixteen, eighteen, and twenty guineas are given for a mule. The common horses are small, but very hardy, and well adapted to a hilly county."

MANURE.-P. 36. "In the eastern part of Cornwall, near the sea, and the rivers, they bring lime-stone from Plymouth, which they burn with culm from Wales, and use each as a preparation for wheat. Afterwards the best farmers use a compost of sea sand, pilchard salt, dung, and the rotten slaty earth, as a preparation for turnips; afterwards lay down with barley, for grass seeds. They use from eighty to one hundred bushels of lime, and from one hundred and fifty to two hundred horse seams of compost.

"The manure produced from the bruised and decayed pilchards, and the Bay salt already used in curing the pilchards, and declared by the salt-officers unfit for farther use, is purchased by the farmers, and consisting of oil, salt, and putrified fish, is a most excellent dressing for land. It is purchased from eight-pence to one shilling the bushel, consisting of two Winchesters, or sixteen gallons.

"This is the best of all manures, and the cheapest, as it goes farther than any other; is lighter in carriage, and lasts very long. It is mixed like lime, with earth sand, in various proportions, as it is easy or difficult to be procured, from forty to sixty Winchesters, to one hundred and fifty or two hundred seams of sand and earth; it is left to ferment and incorporate with the sand and earth, and the whole frequently turned over and mixed, before it is laid on the land.

"After

« PreviousContinue »