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tree had sunk under its burden. To prevent as much as possible the bad effects of an excess of fruit, Mr. Marshal recommends to graft in the boughs, and when fully grown to thin the bearing branches; thus endeavouring, like the gardener, to grow fruit every year.

Though it is impossible to prevent the effects of old age, yet, by proper management, the natural life of fruit-trees may be considerably protracted. The most eligible method is to graft stocks of the native crab in the boughs. The decline of the tree is preceded by a gradual decline of fruitfulness, which long takes place before the tree manifests any sign of decay. During this decline of fruitfulness there is a certain period when the produce of a tree will no longer pay for the ground it occupies, and beyond this period it ought by no means to be allowed to stand. In the Vale of Gloucester, however, our author saw an instance of some healthy bearing apple trees, which then had the second tops to the same stems. The former tops, having been worn out, were cut off, and the stumps sawgrafted. Our author observes that the pear-tree is much longer lived than the apple, and ought never to be planted in the same ground. He concludes with the following general observation: Thus, considering fruit-trees as a crop in husbandry, the general management appears to be this; plant upon a recently broken up worn out sward. Keep the soil under a state of arable management, until the trees be well grown; then lay it down to grass, and let it remain in sward until the trees be removed, and their roots be decayed; when it will again require a course of arable management.'

Of cherries and filberts.-In Kent they prefer for this fruit a situation where there is a deep surface of loam upon the rock. But by some it is said that there is not any necessity for a great depth of soil. In respect to distance apart, cherry-trees require to be planted according to their sorts; a heart requiring double the distance of a duke or morello. But, when planted by themselves, they are generally placed from twenty to thirty feet distant, and are put somewhat deeper in the earth than apples; but in other respects the management is the same.

Cherry wine.-A cooling and pleasant drink is made from the juice of cherries when properly fermented. For making this liquor the cherries should hang upon the trees till they are thoroughly ripe, in order that their juices may be better perfected and enriched by the sun; and they should be gathered in dry weather. The juice is then pressed out, and a quantity of sugar proportioned to the intended strength of the wine is to be added, and the whole regularly fermented. When the wine is become fine it must be bottled. for use.

Filberts are much cultivated in some parts of Kent. The soil best adapted for them is the stone shattery sandy loam of a quality somewhat inferior; as it is a disadvantage for the trees to grow with great luxuriance, they bearing most nuts when but moderately strong. If they are planted among hops, without apples or cherries, they are put about twelve feet apart; when the

hops are dug up, the filberd plantation is kept clean by repeated digging and hoeing; and great skill is necessary in pruning to make them bear well. It is indeed entirely owing to skill and management in this operation that the trees are rendered productive upon even a favorite soil. These trees are generally trained in the shape of a punch bowl, and never suffered to grow above five or six feet high, with short stems, like a gooseberry bush, and exceedingly thin of wood. If suffered to stand till ripe this fruit will keep good for several years in a dry room or closet; but when gathered they should be laid thin on the floor of a room where the sun can get in to dry them properly.

Of raising trees for timber and other purposes. -The importance and value of these is so well known that it is almost superfluous to say any thing on that subject: notwithstanding this acknowledged value, however, the growth of timber is so slow, and the returns for planting so distant, that it is generally supposed for a long time to be a positive loss, or at least to be attended with no profit. This matter, however, when properly considered, will appear in another light. There are four distinct species of woodlands, viz. woods, timber groves, coppices, and woody wastes. The woods are a collection of timber trees and underwood; and the coppices are collections of underwood alone. All these turn out to advantage sooner or later, according to the quick or slow growth of the trees, and the situation of the place with respect to certain local advantages. Thus in some places underwood is of great consequence, for rails, hoops, stakes, fuel, &c.; and by reason of its growth it may be accounted the most profitable of all plantations. An osier-bed will yield a return of profit the second or third year, and a coppice in fifteen or twenty years; while a plantation of oaks will not arrive at perfection in less than a century. This last period is so long that it may be supposed likely to deter people from making such plantations of this kind, as few are willing to take any trouble for what they are never to see in perfection. It must be remembered, however, that, though the trees themselves do not come to perfection in a shorter time, the value of the ground will always increase in proportion to their age. Mr. Pavier, in the Bath Papers, vol. iv., computes the value of fifty acres of oak timber in 100 years to be £12,100, which is nearly fifty shillings annually per acre; and, as this is continually accumulating without any of that expense or risk to which annual crops are subject, planting of timber may be accounted one of the most profitable articles in husbandry. Evelyn calculates the profit of 1000 acres of oak land in 150 years, at no less than £670,000. But it would be improper to occupy with timber of such slow growth the grounds which, either in grass or corn, can repay the trouble of cultivation with a good annual crop.

In the Bath papers, vol. iv., Mr. Wagstaffe recommends planting as an auxiliary to cultivation. He brings an instance of the success of Sir William Jerringham, who made trial of the most unpromising ground perhaps that any successful planter has hitherto attempted. His

method was to plant beech trees at proper distances among Scotch firs, upon otherwise barren heaths. These trees,' says Mr. Wagstaffe,' in a soil perhaps without clay or loam, with the heathy sod trenched into its broken strata of sand or gravel, under the protection of the firs, have laid hold, though slowly, of the soil; and, accelerated by the superior growth of the firs, have proportionally risen, until they wanted an enlargement of space for growth when the firs were cut down.' He adds that, when the firs are felled, their roots decay in the ground; and thus furnish by that decay a new support to the soil on which the beeches grow; whereby the latter receive an additional vigor, as well as an enlargement of space and freer air; the firs themselves, though cut down before they arrived at their full growth, being also applicable to many valuable purposes.

In the Annals of Agriculture, vol. vi., we find the culture of trees recommended by Mr. Harries; and he informs us that the larch is the quickest grower and the most valuable of all the resinous timber trees; but, unless there be pretty good room allowed for the branches to stretch out on the lower part of the trunk, it will not arrive at any considerable size; and this observation, he says, holds good of all pyramidal trees. Scotch firs may be planted between them, and pulled out after they begin to obstruct the growth of the larch. Some of these larches he had seen planted about thirty years before, which, at five feet distance from the ground, measured from four feet to five feet six inches in circumference. The most barren grounds, he says, would answer for these trees, but better soil is required for the oaks. In this paper he takes notice of the leaves of one of his plantations of oaks having been almost entirely destroyed by insects; in consequence of which they did not increase in bulk as usual; but another, which had nearly escaped these ravages, increased at an average one inch in circunference. A tree four feet round,' says he, that has timber twenty feet in length, gains by this growth a solid foot of timber annually, worth one shilling at least, and pays five per cent. for standing. It increases more as the tree gets from five to six feet round. I have in my groves 3000 oaks that pay me one shilling each per annum, or £150 a year. My poplars have gained in circumference nearly two inches, and a Worcester and witch elm as much. I have lately been informed that the smooth cut of a holly tree, that measures twenty inches and upwards round, is worth to the cabinet makers 2s. 6d. per foot.'

The following table shows the increase of trees in twenty-one years from their first planting. It was taken from the marquis of Lansdowne's plantation, begun in 1765, and the calculation made on the 15th of July 1768. It is about six acres in extent, the soil partly a swampy meadow upon a gravelly bottom. The measures were taken at five feet above the ground; the small firs having been occasionally drawn for posts and rails, as well as rafters for cottages; and, when peeled of the bark, will stand well for seven years.

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From this table it appears that planting of timber trees, where the return can be waited for during the space of twenty years, will undoubtedly repay the original profits of planting, as well as the interest of the money laid out; which is the better worth the attention of a proprietor of land, that the ground on which they grow may be supposed good for very little else. From a comparative table of the growth of oak, ash, and elm timber, given in the Annals of Agriculture, vol. ii., it appears that the oak is by much the slowest grower of the three.

With respect to the growth of underwood, which in some cases is very valuable, it is to be remarked that, to have an annual fall of it, the whole quantity of ground, whatever its extent may be, ought to be divided into annual sowings. The exact number of sowings must be regulated by the uses to which it is intended to be put. Thus, if, as in Surrey, stakes, edders, and hoops are saleable, there ought to be eight or ten annual sowings; or if, as in Kent, hop poles are demanded, fourteen or fifteen will be required; and if, as in Yorkshire, rails be wanted, or, as in Gloucestershire, cordwood be most marketable, eighteen or twenty sowings will be necessary to produce a succession of annual falls. Thus the business, by being divided, will be rendered less burdensome; a certain proportion being every year to be done, a regular set of hands will, in proper season, be employed; and, by beginning upon a small scale, the errors of the first year will be corrected in the practice of the second, and those of the second in that of the third. The produce of the intervals will fall into regular course; and, when the whole is completed, the falls will follow each other in regular succession. The greatest objection to this method of sowing woodlands is the extraordinary trouble in fencing; but this objection does not hold if the sowings lie at a distance from one another; on the contrary, if they lie together, or in plots, the entire plot may be enclosed at once; and, if it contain a number of sowings, some subdivisions will be necessary, and the annual sowing of these subdivisions may be fenced off with hurdles, or some other temporary contrivance; but, if the adjoining land be kept under the plough, little temporary fencing will be necessary. But, in raising a woodland from seeds, it is not only necessary to defend the young plants against cattle and sheep,

but against hares and rabbits; so that a close fence of some kind is absolutely necessary.

With regard to the preparation of the ground for raising timber, if the soil be of a stiff clayey nature, it should receive a whole year's fallow; if light, a crop of turnips may be taken; but at all events it must be made perfectly clean before the tree seeds be sown, particularly from perennial root weeds; as, after the seeds are sown, the opportunity of performing this necessary business is in a great measure lost. If the situation be moist, the soil should be gathered into wide lands, sufficiently round to let the water run off from the surface, but not high. The time of sowing is either October or March; and the method as follows:-The land being in fine order, and the season favorable, the whole should be sown with corn or pulse adapted to the season of sowing; if in autumn, wheat or rye may be the crop; but if in spring, beans or oats. Whichever of these species be adopted, the quantity of seed ought to be less than usual, to give a free admission of air, and prevent the crop from lodging. The sowing of the grain being completed, that of the tree seeds must be immediately set about. These are to be put in drills across the land; acorns and nuts should be dibbled in, but keys and berries scattered in trenches or drills drawn with the corner of a hoe, as gardeners sow their pease. The distance might be a quarter of a statute rod, or four feet and one inch and a half. A land chain should be used in setting out the drills, as not being liable to be lengthened or shortened by the weather. It is readily divided into roods; and the quarters may be easily marked.'

The species of underwood to be sown must be determined by the consumption of it in the neighbourhood. Thus, if stakes, hoops, &c., be in request, the oak, hazel, and ash, are esteemed as underwood. Where charcoal is wanted for iron forges, beech is the prevailing underwood. The oak, box, birch, &c., are all in request in different countries, and the choice must be determined by the prevailing demand. As the keys of the ash sometimes lie two or even three years in the ground, it will be proper to have the places where they are sown distinguished by some particular marks, to prevent them from being disturbed by the plough after harvest; as a few beans may be scattered along with them, if the crop be oats; or oats if the crop be beans. The crop should be reaped, not mown, at harvest time, and be carried off as fast as possible Between harvest and winter a pair of furrows should be laid back to back in the middle of each interval, for meliorating the next year's crop, and laying the seedling plants dry; while the stubble of the unploughed ground on each side of the drills will keep them warm during the winter. The next year's crop may be potatoes, cabbages, turnips; or, if the first was corn, this may be beans; if the first was beans, this may be wheat drilled. In the spring of the third year the drills which rose the first year must be looked over, and the vacancies filled up from those parts which are thickest; but the drills of the ash should be let alone till the fourth year. The whole should afterwards be

looked over from time to time; and this, with cultivating the intervals, and keeping the drills free from weeds, will be all that is necessary until the tops of the plants begin to appear. The crops may be continued for several years; and, if they only pay for the expenses, they will still be of considerable advantage, by keeping the ground stirred, and preserving the plants from hares and rabbits. Even after the crops are discontinued, the ground ought still to be stirred, alternately throwing the mould to the roots of the plants, and gathering it into a ridge in the middle of the interval. The best method of doing this is to split the ground at the approach of winter, to throw it up to the trees on both sides; this will preserve the roots from frost; gather it again in the spring, which will check the weeds, and give a fresh supply of air; split again at midsummer, to preserve the plants from drought; gather, if necessary, in autumn, and split as before at the approach of winter. The spring and midsummer ploughings should be continued as long as a plough can pass between the plants.

Whenever the oaks intended for timber are in danger of being drawn up too slender for their height, it will be necessary to cut off all the rest at the height of about a hand-breadth above the ground; and those designed to stand must now be planted at about two rods distant from each other, and as nearly a quincunx as possible. The second cutting must be determined by the demand for the underwood; with this proviso, that the timber stands be not too much crowded by it; for, rather than this should be the case, the coppice should be cut, though the wood may not have reached its proper profitable state. What is here said of the method of rearing oak trees in woods is in a great measure applicable to that of raising other trees in timber groves. The species most usually raised in these are the ash, elm, beech, larch, spruce fir, Weymouth pine, poplar, willow, alder, chestnut, walnut, and cherry. The three last are used as substitutes for the oak and beech, and these two for the mahogany.

PART V.

OF THE MANAGEMENT OF LIVE STOCK.

As great part of the stock of a husbandman must always consist of cattle, and one of his principal expenses is in the maintenance of them, this part of his business is certainly to be looked upon as important. The cattle belonging to a farm may be divided into two classes, viz. such as are intended for work, and such as are designed for sale. The former are now principally horses. In the second volume of Bath Papers, we have an account of a comparative experiment of the utility of horses and oxen in husbandry, by Mr. Kedington of Bury, in which the preference is decisively given to oxen. He says that when he began the experiment, in 1779, he was almost certain that there was not an ox worked in the whole country: finding, however, the expense of horses very great, he purchased a single pair of oxen, but found much difficulty in breaking them, as the workmen were so much

prejudiced against them, that they would not take the proper pains. At last he met with a laborer who undertook the task; and the oxen 'soon became as tractable and as handy, both at ploughing and carting, as any horses. On this he determined to part with all his cart horses; and when he wrote his letter (1781) he had not a single horse, nor more than six oxen; which inconsiderable number performed, with ease, all the work of his farm (consisting of upwards of 100 acres of arable land and sixty of pasture and wood), besides the statute duty on the highways, timber and corn, carting, harrowing, rolling, and every part of rural business. They are constantly shod; their harness is the same as that of horses (excepting the necessary alterations for difference of size and shape); they are driven with bridles and bits in their mouths, answering to the same words of the ploughman and carter as horses will do. A single man holds the plough, and drives a pair of oxen with reins: and our author informs us that they will plough an acre of ground in less than eight hours, or even in seven. The intervals of a small plantation, in which the trees are set in rows ten feet asunder, are ploughed by a single ox with a light plough, and he is driven by the man who holds it. The oxen go in a cart either single, or one, two, or three, according to the load. Four oxen will draw eighty bushels of barley or oats in a waggon with ease; and, if good of their kind, will travel as fast as horses with the same load. One ox will draw forty bushels in a light cart, which our author thinks is the best carriage of any. On the whole, he prefers oxen to horses for the following reasons:-1. They are kept at much less expense, never eating meal or corn of any kind. In winter they are fed with straw, turnips, carrots, or cabbages: or, instead of the three last, they have each a peck of bran per day while kept constantly at work. In spring they eat hay; and, if working harder than usual in seedtime, they have also bran. When the vetches are fit for mowing, they get them only in the stable. After the day's work in summer they have a small bundle of hay, and stand in the stable till they cool; after which they are turned into the pasture. Our author is of opinion that an ox may be maintained in condition for the same constant work as a horse for at least £4 less annually. 2. After a horse is seven years old, his value declines every year; and when lame, blind, or very old, he is scarcely worth any thing but an ox in any of these situations may be fatted, and sold for even more than the first purchase; and will always be fat sooner after work than before. 3. Oxen are less liable to diseases than horses. 4. Horses are often liable to be spoiled by servants riding them without their master's knowledge, which is not the case with oxen. 5. A general use of oxen would make beef plentiful, and consequently all other meat; which would be a national benefit. Mr. Marshal, in his Rural Economy of the Midland Counties, also shows the advantage of employing oxen in preference to horses, from the mere article of expense, which, according to his calculation, is enormous on the part of the horses. VOL. XIX.

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He begins with estimating the number of square miles in England; and this he supposes to be 30,000 of cultivated ground. Supposing the work of husbandry to be done by horses only, and each square mile to employ twenty horses, which is about three to 100 acres, the whole number used throughout Britain would be 600,000; from which deducting one-sixth, for the number of oxen now employed, the number will be 500,000. Admitting that each horse works ten years, the number of farm-horses which die annually are 50,000; each of which requires full four years keep before he is fit for work. Horses indeed are broken in at three, some at two years old, but they are, or ought to be, indulged in keep and work till they are six; so that the cost of rearing and keeping may be laid at full four ordinary years. For all this consumption of vegetable produce he returns the community not a single article of food, clothing, or commerce; even his skin, for economical purposes, being barely worth the taking off. By working horses in husbandry, therefore, the community is losing annually the amount of 200,000 years keep of a growing horse; which, at the low estimate of £5 a-year, amounts to a million annually. On the contrary, supposing the business of husbandry to be done solely by cattle, and admitting that oxen may be fatted with the same expenditure of vegetable produce as that which old horses require to fit them for full work, and that, instead of 50,000 horses dying, 50,000 oxen, of only fiftytwo stone each, are annually slaughtered; it is evident that a quantity of beef nearly equal to what the city of London consumes would be annually brought into the market; or 100,000 additional inhabitants might be supplied with one pound of animal food a-day each, without consuming one additional blade of grass.' 'Oxen,' adds Mr. Marshal, appear to be perfectly handy, and work, either at plough or cart, in a manner which shows that although horses may be in some cases convenient, and in most cases pleasurable to the driver, they are by no means necessary to husbandry. A convenience used in this country is a moveable harness-house, with a sledge bottom, which is drawn from place to place as occasion may require. Thus no labor is lost either by the oxen or their drivers. In Yorkshire oxen are still used, though in fewer numbers than formerly. The Yorkshire plough was formerly of such an unwieldy construction that four or six oxen, in yokes, led by two horses, were absolutely requisite to draw it; but the improvements in the construction of the plough have of late been so great that two horses are now sufficient for the purpose; so that, as Yorkshire has always been famous for its breed of horses, we are not to wonder at the present disuse of oxen.' For these and other reasons, the employment of oxen at all is to Mr. Marshal a convincing argument of their utility as beasts of draught. The timber carriers still continue to use them, even though their employment be solely upon the road. They find them not only able to stand working every day, but to bear long hours better than horses going in the same pasture. An ox in a good pasture soon fills his belly, and lies down to rest; but a horse can scarcely satisfy

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his hunger in a short summer's night. Oxen are also much superior at a difficult pull to horses. Horses of draught cost, at four years old, from £20 to £30; they will, with extravagant keep, extraordinary care and attendance, and much good luck, continue to labor eight or ten years, and may then generally be sold for 5s. a-head. If we had no other species of animals adapted to the purposes of draught in the island, cart-horses would be very valuable. But it is evident that, were only a small share of the attention paid to the breeding of draught oxen which is now bestowed on the breeding of cart-horses, animals equally powerful, more active, less costly, equally adapted to the purposes of husbandry if harnessed with equal judgment, less expensive in keep and attendance, much more durable, and infinitely more valuable after they have finished their labors, might be produced. A steer, like a colt, ought to be familiarised to harness at two or three years old, but should never be subjected to hard labor until he be five years old; from which age, until he be fifteen or twenty, he may be considered as in his prime as a beast of draught. 'An ox,' says Mr. Marshal, which I worked several years in Surrey, might, at seventeen or eighteen years of age, have challenged, for strength, agility, and sagacity, the best bred carthorse in the kingdom.'

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Of horses, and the methods of breeding, rearing, and feeding them.-The midland counties of England have for some time been celebrated on account of their breed of the black cart-horse; though Mr. Marshal is of opinion that this kind are unprofitable as beasts of draught in husbandry. The present improvement in the breed took its rise from six Zealand mares sent over by the late lord Chesterfield during his embassy at the Hague. These mares being lodged at his lordship's seal at Bretby in Derbyshire, the breed of horses thus became improved in that county, and for some time it took the lead for the species of these animals. As the improved breed passed into Leicestershire, however, through some unknown circumstances, it became still more improved; and Leicester has for some time taken the lead. It is now found, however, that the very large horses formerly bred in this district are much less useful than such as are of a smaller size. Mr. Marshal describes in lofty terms one of these large horses, a stallion belonging to Mr. Bakewell, which, he says, was the handsomest horse he ever saw. 'He was,' says he, the fancied war-horse of the German painters; who, in the luxuriance of imagination, never perhaps excelled the natural grandeur of this horse. A man of moderate size seemed to shrink behind his fore end, which rose so perfectly upright, that his ears stood (as Mr. Bakewell says every horse's ears ought to stand) perpendicularly over his fore feet. It may be said, with little latitude, that in grandeur and symmetry of form, viewed as a picturable object, he exceeded as far the horse which this superior breeder had the honor of showing to his majesty, and which was afterwards shown publicly at London, as that horse does the meanest of the breed.' A more useful horse, bred also by Mr. Bakewell, however, is described as having a thick carcase, his back

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short and straight, and his legs short and clean: as strong as an ox, yet active as a poney; equally suitable for a cart or a lighter carriage.'

The stallions in this country are bred either by farmers or by persons whose business it is to breed them, and who therefore have the name of breeders. See EQUUS and HORSE. These last either cover with them, or let them out to others for the season, or sell them. The prices given for them are from fifty to 200 guineas by purchase; from forty to eighty or 100 by the season; or from half a guinea to two guineas by the mare. Mr. Marshal owns that this breed of horses are a profitable species of live stock, and, as far as there is a market for six-years-old-horses of this breed, it is profitable to agriculture. But,' says he, viewing agriculture in general, not one occupier in ten can partake of the profit; and, being kept in agriculture after they have reached that profitable age, they become indisputably one of its heaviest burdens. Even the brood mare, after they have passed that age, may, unless they be of a very superior quality, be deemed unprofitable to the farmer."

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Mr. Marshal complains that the ancient breed of Norfolk horses is almost entirely worn out. They were small, brown muzzled, and light boned, but they could endure very heavy work, with little food: two of them were quite equal to the plough in the soil of that county, which is not deep. The present breed is produced by a cross with a large one of Lincolnshire and Leicestershire already mentioned. He approves of the Suffolk breed, which, he says, are a half-horse, half-hog race of animals, but better adapted to the Norfolk husbandry than the Leicestershire breed; their principal fault, in his opinion, is a flatness of the rib. In the Vale of Gloucester most farmers rear their own plough horses. They are of a very useful kind, the color mostly black, inclinable to tan color, short and thick in the barrel, and low on their legs. The price of a six-year-old horse from £25 to £35. Some cart horses are bred in Cotswold hills; the mares are worked till the time of foaling, but not while they suckle; and the foals are weaned early, while there is plenty of grain upon the ground. Yorkshire, which bas been long celebrated for its breed of horses, stil stands foremost in that respect among the English counties. It is chiefly remarkable for the breed of saddle horses, which cannot be reared in Norfolk, though many attempts have been made for that purpose. Yorkshire stallions are often sent into Norfolk; but, though the foals may be handsome when young, they lose their beauty when old. In Yorkshire, on the other hand, though the foal be ever so unpromising, it acquires beauty, strength, and activity as it grows. Mr. Marshal supposes that from 5000 to 10,000 horses are annually bred up between the easter Morelands and the Humber. In the breeding of horses he complains greatly of the negligence the Yorkshire people, the mares being almost totally neglected; though in the brute creation almost every thing depends upon the female. With regard to the general maintenance of horses our author recommends the Norfolk manage ment of horses as the cheapest method of feeding them practised any where. In winter, when little

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