offer. The women, every where in the county, perform a large share of the rural labours, particularly the harvestwork, weeding the corn, hoeing turnips, potatoes, &c. attending the thrashing-machines; by the latter business they have more employment in the winter than they formerly had.

"The prices of service and labour may vary a little in different parts of the county, but the following is nearly the average-the farm-servants have from eight to twelve guineas a year, and their board; maid-servants from three to four pounds per annum. The price of labour, of the hireling class, may be stated from nine to twelve shillings per week, with the privilege, which is a very general one, of a limited supply of corn for the consumption of his family, at a fixed rate, considerably under the market price. The women have from sixpence to eightpence per day."

Food of Work people.-P. 160. "The most common food of the labouring class is barley bread with tea, and salted fish. The pilchards, which are caught in great abundance on our coasts in the autumn, and cured for foreign markets, supply our poor also with wholesome and nutritive food; they are salted in the months of August and September, and thus are preserved throughout the year; they give a relish to the breakfast or tea, and are eaten with potatoes at the other meals of dinner or supper.

"Many of the labourers, however, who gain better wages, or who are not burthened with large families, use wheaten bread, and are able to indulge in some meat for their pasties, as well as for their suppers, after their daily labour is done. They have an advantage also, from the great plenty of fish with which the markets abound. Indeed, the poor are in general better fed and clothed than in most other counties."

WORKING ANIMALS.-P. 146. "In no county does the ox stand in higher estimation for all kinds of work, than in Cornwall. Oxen are every where to be met with, drawing the butt, the wain, and the waggon, on the roads; in the fields, the plough and the harrow. They are brought to the yoke and bow, at about the age of three years, and worked to the seventh or eighth year; they are shod, or, as it is provincially termed, cued, are extremely docile and active, going at a full trot with the empty carriages in the bustling seasons of hay-time and harvest, and driven by a little boy who chears and excites them in their labour by the song and the goad: bulls in some few places are worked with oxen. A plough team generally consists of four, some of six, or of four with a horse to lead."-See Horses, ensuing.

IMPLEMENTS.-Wheel Carriages.-The Reporter speaks,

at

at large, on" Wheels;" but touches lightly on "Horseand-Crooks," or packsaddle carriage; which, unless on the sea-coasts, is the most practical mean of conducting the business of arable farming. See Fraser, on this topic, aforegoing.

True it is, however, that wheel carriages are much more used, in Cornwall, than in West Devonshire; where the "Cornish wain" and waggon might, in many instances, be adopted.

The distinction, between Cornish and English carts and waggons, lies in the former having no bodies: the bed or bottom of the carriage has no sides; each wheel having only an arch of wood bending over it; equally to prevent the load from bearing upon it, and to defend the load from its action. A top load, as of hay or corn, is not only conveniently loaded, but, by its lying low, is less liable to be overturned, on the sides of hills, than one which is more elevated.

The other carriage contrivances-the sledges and slide butts of Cornwall, resemble those of West Devonshire.

Plows.-P. 42. "The turn-wrist ploughs are in common use throughout this county" (?); "indeed the hillyness of the land makes them indispensable; nor do any people know better how to make good work with them."

I wish Mr. Worgan had given the history and contruction of the turnwrist plow of Cornwall. I have long recommended the use of such an implement in West Devonshire, and it seems somewhat extraordinary that the circumstance of its being in "common use," in Cornwall should not, there, have been known. It was, in 1807, perhaps, of recent introduction.

MANURE.-Pilchards.-P. 123. "The maritime situation of Cornwall presents the farmer with three valuable manures, fish, sea-sand, and ore weed. We will speak of these respectively.

"In some years the farmers who live in the vicinity of fishing towns, have an opportunity of buying the bruised and small pilchards; these being deemed unfit for market are rejected, and called caff;' four cart-loads, of twelve bushels, are considered as the proper quantity for an acre. The usual mode of management is to bury the caff in a pile of earth, deep enough to secure it from dogs and hogs, adding to the pile a sufficient quantity of sand, well mixing and turning all together, after having lain some months. Without this practice, the fish would not decay sufficiently for perhaps a year or two. The fish are sometimes used alone; they are then spread thinly over the ground before the plough, and turned under furrow. I have been told,

that

that one pilchard, cut up small, will amply dress one square foot of ground. They used to be sold for about 98. or 10s. a butt-load" (cart load); " they are now risen to 158, or 20s. per load. The bruised fish, immediately from the cellar doors, are considered as infinitely preferable to the refuse of the salted fish.

"The fishery having of late years been greatly checked, by the failure of the foreign markets, considerable quantities of fish have been converted to manure; but this is to the great loss of the adventurers: if, however, the bounty which has been granted to merchants on the export, was extended to all fish taken by adventurers in seins, and sold for manure, it would enable the proprietors to put out their seins for the express purpose, and thereby both the interest of the fisheries, and the advancement of agriculture, would be greatly promoted; and, it is presumed, that the influence of the Honourable Board would be well employed in obtaining this great national object. The old salt which has been used for curing the pilchard, and judged to be no longer fit for that purpose, is advantageously applied for a barley or a turnip crop,-twenty to thirty bushels per acre. It is commonly hand-sown, in the manner of corn; and it should remain on the land five or six days before the seed is sown. It is best adapted to light lands, particularly

furze-crofts.

Twenty bushels per acre have been strewed over grass lands, and over a wheat crop, in the month of March, with evident advantage. The price of this salt used to be sixpence per Winchester bushel, which weighs 84 lb. and is called a gun, but cannot be had now under tenpence or one shilling.

"Another article of manure is obtained from this useful fish-this is the liquor which drains from it while under the process of curing, consisting of blood, brine, and some oil which escapes, and which is caught in pits; the diligent farmer carts this away in casks, for the purpose of pouring over and mixing with his piles of earth and sand, which it greatly enriches."

Sea Weed.-P. 125. "The most approved management of this excellent manure is, to carry it fresh from the shores, and spread it on heaps of earth, then to cover it with sand; after lying in this state some time, it is completely incorporated, by turning and mixing it with the other ingredients, which make together a rich compost. If the wrack is suffered to lie in a heap by itself, it heats, and becomes so extremely putrid, as to attract flies, and generate maggots.

"Some farmers carry the plant alone, in small heaps,

over a field they intend for barley, spread it, and turn it immediately under furrow; for if they are not diligent and cautious in this work, the sun and the wind exhale its rich moisture; it shrinks almost to one half, and is then little worth."

Sea Shells, or Sea Shell-Marl; improperly named "Sea Sand;" which, without the shells, or the mucilage which appears to be formed from them, is of inconsiderable value, I believe, as manure.-P. 126. "Here is another inestimable treasure which Cornwall derives from her great extent of sea coast. Long experience has proved, that sea-sand is a fertilizer of the soil; good for corn, causing it to kern, or corn well, as well as for pulse and roots, and excellent for pasture. It is in such estimation with farmers, as materially to affect the value of estates, according to their nearness to, or distance from, this manure. It is frequently carried fifteen miles inland. Cornwall has perhaps a greater variety of shelly sands than any other county in Great Britain: Dr. Borlase enumerates thirty-two different kinds. It is in greater plenty, and, in general, of superior quality on the north coast than on the south; but there are very few places where one kind or other may not be had.

"The relative degrees of the fertilizing powers of seasand depend on the different proportions of calcareous and animal matter of which it is composed, but its effects on soils are mechanical, as well as chemical. There is indeed mixed with some sand, a slimy earthy matter, the recrement of leaves, wood, and perhaps animal remains; this, I believe, is what they call lig, or liggan, and has been found to be a good manure for potatoes. That sand which is in highest estimation is taken up about Falmouth Harbour, in Carrick Road; it is a coral sand, and of large size, effervesces strongly with acids, and lies longer in the ground, in an undissolved state, than any other. This sand is much in use about Truro, Probus, and the vicinity. There is also a much finer sand taken up at the mouth of the harbour, less calcareous, and less in request. All along the north coast, from the Land's-End to Bute Haven, the sands are very good, containing a large proportion of shelly fragments. "Application.-When sea-sand is applied alone as a dressing, which is sometimes the case, both on grass and arable lands, they call it a clean sanding; but the most usual method is, to mix it in the compost with earth and dung. The quantity used per acre will depend on the ability of the farmer, and the distance he has to carry it. Three hundred sacks, of sixteen gallons each, is deemed a good sanding for a Cornish acre, and it is applied in all the intermediate quantities, even down to thirty sacks."

P. 128.

P. 128. "It is computed, that upwards of 54,000 cartloads of sand are carried from Padstow harbour only, and that the expense of land-carriage of sand, for the whole county, amounts to upwards of 30,000l. per annum."

Lime.-P. 128. "The only places where limestone is found in Cornwall, and burnt for manure, are in the parishes of South Petherwin and Veryan; the former is an old work, and, about half a century ago, the lime was much used in the neighbourhood of Launceston; it is still carried

on.

"The Veryan limestone was discovered on the lands of the Rev. Mr. Trist, in 1796, and has been wrought by him ever since, both for manure and masonry."

ARABLE CROPS.-P. 57. "The corn crops cultivated in this county are wheat, barley, and oats; the avena nuda of Ray, in Cornwall called pilez, is also sown in small patches in the Western District; it bears the price of wheat, and is used for fattening pigs, or for rearing calves.

"The green and root crops, commonly cultivated by the farmers in Cornwall, consist of red and yellow clovers, trefoil, and rye-grass (called eaver in Cornwall), turnips, rutabaga, potatoes, and in some instances the flat-pole, or drumhead cabbage."

Mr. Worgan has spoken, at some length, on the culture of those crops. I perceive in his account, however, very little of consideration, that differs from the West Devonshire practice, which I have described in detail; and, to repeat it, here, would be an unnecessary encumbrance on my present Work.-What little variation of practice which I may find, in Mr. Worgan's Report, I will notice, in this place.

WHEAT.-Succession.-P. 59. "Wheat too frequently succeeds a crop of barley; in this case, the barley stubble sometimes receives a manuring of earth and lime, or compost, which have been collected and mixed during the summer round the hedges of the barley field; this is carried out and spread upon the stubble, and after one ploughing, the wheat is sown and harrowed in."

NAKED OATS.-P. 66. "The Avena Nuda, provincially called Pilez, or Pillas.-The culture of this grain is confined to the western parts of Cornwall, and it is generally the farewell crop to a piece of ground that has been completely exhausted of vegetable food by preceding crops of potatoes, wheat, and oats. This plant grows something like the oat, but the straw is much finer, almost as good as hay; the grain is small, about the size of a shelled oat, and weighs as heavy as wheat per bushel; it is excellent for feeding poultry and pigs. One gallon of pilez mixed