Chapter VII.
Arable Land

Sect. V1 - BARLEY.

The greatest part of the barley is sown after green crops, at one or more ploughings ; two should always be given, if possible, as it is much more kindly for the seeds, with sufficient harrowings between the ploughings ; and rolling, if necessary, to break the clods and pulverize the land. As it is well known barley and seeds succeed best upon a fine tilth, the principal tillage is, in this case, given for the green crop, which is the same as that given for a fallow- See Fallowing. Barley is also sown after a whole years fallow, upon land too harsh, strong, or wet, to eat off green crops to advantage : this gives an opportunity of perfectly cleaning the land before laying to grass, and the loss by fallow is soon compensated by a full barley crop, and an excellent clean pasture ; and although barley is generally supposed to be adapted only to light land, where green crops may be grown, yet Mr. King assured me, that the greatest part of the vale of Belvoir (although strong land) will bear barley, and in great crops when clean fallowed, though unfit for turnips.
Barley is also sometimes grown after fallow wheat, at Queeniborough, and elsewhere, but in no great proportion ; this is the old fashioned way, and ought to be abolished, as barley after wheat is too exhausting for any land to bear, and graze well after. When this is practised, the wheat stubble is pinfallowed before Christmas, cross ploughed and harrowed down in the March following, and the land ploughed up and sown in April. Barley is also grown in a small proportion upon turf land after one ploughing, upon light loam, the land being in fine tilth and in good heart ; I suppose about as much barley may be sown on turf land, as there is spring wheat after green crops : the barley stubble, in this case, is sown with coleseed for early sheep pasture, and the next summer turnip fallow.
The manure for barley is always laid on the fallow, or for the green crop ; the folding of sheep on the green crop makes an excellent dressing for the barley, and generally forces a full crop.
As grass seeds are almost universally sown with barley, the best manure for the green crop, or fallow, is lime, from four to six tons per acre ; to which may be added, muck, if it can be had or spared : but lime, if the land has not before been used to it too much, is so excellent a stimulant, in forcing the grass seeds and producing a good pasture, that it ought to be preferred in this case. A flock of sheep, in grazing the pasture, will annually improve the land, and in due time it will come up again for tillage, mellow and in a state of fertility.
Cooke's drill is considerably used for barley, by many of the principal occupiers, though I suppose much the greatest proportion of land is still down to broad cast. As barley ground is generally in fine tilth, the drill can be used to advantage ;and I suppose more barley is drilled than all other crops put together. At Lord Moira's, Mr. Rutherford uses Cooke's drill for barley ; he reports that he lays in but two bushels of seed per acre, whereas from three to four bushels are sown broad cast, and that he gets back in six quarters per acre ; this is twenty-four for one ; a great increase ! The barley is drilled at twelve inches, five rows at a time ; after the rows appear, the scarifiers are applied by means of the same drill machine, to loosen the soil, and root up any weeds that may be in their way : the clover, and other seeds, are then sown, and a pair of light harrows run over the land without injuring the barley ; the whole is then rolled level, and remains till harvest.
Drilling of barley has long been occasionally practised at Dishley. Mr. Honeybourne thinks the practice is rather gaining ground, but that till a clean cultivation becomes more extended, it is vain to expect its general adoption.
Mr. Watkinson, of Woodhouse, has used Cooke's drill considerably for barley, but sometimes sows part of a piece broad cast for comparison, and can scarcely perceive a difference ; but he says, if he may venture an opinion, it would be in favour of the drill : he thinks the straw is generally stronger, and the grain better bodied ; but hoeing the barley is omitted, because it interferes with the grass seeds, and after the drill, the grass seeds are obliged to be light harrowed in, and the land is afterwards rolled. Mr. Watkinson observes, that for a drill to be used to advantage, the land must be highly prepared ; hence it is very probable, that as much or more advantage is derived from the preparatory tillage, than from the mechanical process of laying in the seed. The time of sowing barley is very generally the month of April, and the harvest in August and early September ; the sort sown is very generally the early long ear (hordeum distichon) ; this sort ripening in good time, and generally producing a good sample : the quantity of seed drilled is two to three bushels, sown broad cast three to four bushels per acre, saving by drilling one bushel. Respecting the harvesting, barley is always mown with a scythe, and the swathes being turned over after the top is well dried, will, if the weather be favourable, soon be ready to put in cocks, and carry to the stack or barn ; but in rainy seasons the business is protracted ; it requires many turnings, openings, and spreadings ; the farmer is harassed, his expenses increased, and the grain injured, and sometimes spoiled for malting : a wet harvest may therefore be considered as a public calamity.
Produce.-The produce of barley is various ; Mr. Rutherford, at Lord Moira's, states his average at six quarters per acre, a quantity often produced elsewhere by good management on good land ; and a great deal more has been known, to seven or eight quarters in particular instances ; but, I suppose, three or four quarters are also very common, and cannot put the average so high as five quarters, and believe it does not exceed four quarters and a half per acre, over and above the seed sown.
As barley is the favourite crop of grain of the Leicestershire farmer, from its properly succeeding green crops, and being kindly to the succeeding grass seeds for pasture, a much greater breadth is grown of this, than of any other grain or pulse ; and it comes out by the estimate made on courses of crops, that the growth of barley in this county extends to 40,000 acres of land ; this, at four and a half quarters per acre, makes the annual produce 180,00 quarters.
If we suppose one-third of the whole in light, tail end, or inferior barley, given to live stock, there remain 120,000 quarters for the brewery ; the consumption of the county in malt liquor, at four bushels per head, would be 65,000 quarters ; to this add 15,000 quarters for the supply of inns and travellers, leaves 40,000 quarters as a surplus of barley for the supply of other counties ; and there is no doubt but this county has a considerable surplus of barley, for the supply of the Burton-upon-Trent brewery, as well as that carried on within itself : there are two breweries upon a large scale carried on at Loughborough.
The sort of barley almost universally sown is the early long ear, which has been found generally to yield best, and to operate quicker, both in the malt-house and cellar, and on those accounts is generally preferred, both by the maltster and brewer. The spratt barley (hordeum zeocriton) was formerly more sown than at present, was reckoned more hardy, and less liable to be laid by rain, and was thought by some to make the best keeping beer.
Barley is universally mown with a scythe, and when the swathes are dry on top they are turned over, and when dry and well seasoned it is got into cocks, and the ground clean raked, and then carried in waggons to the barn or stack. The barley harvest is at the same time with that of wheat, August, and the beginning of September.
The straw of barley is generally thrown before cattle, about the fold yard, or in cribs in great plenty for them to pick at, but they are not confined to live on it entirely, nor is it supposed to afford much nutriment, or that cattle would thrive on it alone ; they have generally the addition of a few turnips, or a little picking at grass : the great object being to tread it into manure, and mix it with a sufficient quantity of their dung and urine, to bring on a proper fermentation for that purpose.
No bread is made of barley in Leicestershire, I believe not under any circumstances ; its sole use is in the brewery, and in feeding the different kinds of livestock. 

Sect. VII - OATS.

A great many oats are grown in this county, it being, I believe, the second favourite grain crop, and being in a horse county there is a great demand for oats : the straw is also reckoned more valuable than any other ; the culture also is simple, and the produce large, being more per acre upon the average than any other grain or pulse.
Oats are almost wholly grown the first crop upon turf land ; the tillage therefore consists only of once ploughing, sowing the seed broad cast, and well harrowing it in, afterwards rolling the land : no manure is used. They are seldom drilled, being an awkward formed grain for that mode of sowing. The time of sowing is March, or the beginning of April ; the sorts generally or wholly a white oat, Poland, Dutch, or what is called potatoe oat ; I saw no instance of red or black ones, and believe they are seldom, if at all grown. It is the custom here to sow them pretty thick, six or seven bushels per acre. They are weeded by hand, in due time, if any weeds arise ; but being of quick growth, and generally sown on turf land, are little subject to weeds, on land in anything like good culture.
Oats are in a few instances sown after fallow wheat, on cold land, and also after a green crop instead of barley, on similar land ; in either case, once ploughing is generally thought sufficient. At harvest the oat is generally first ripe early in August ; if a full crop and long in the straw, they are often reaped with a sickle, bound and set up in mows or shocks like wheat ; sometimes mown with a scythe, and afterwards gathered and bound in sheaves ; and at other times harvested loose, after turning and cocking in the manner of barley. The produce of oats is very considerable. Mr. Stone, of Barrow, informed me, that he has grown 11 quarters per acre, a piece through, naming a piece of moderately strong land which I have seen ; but I believe as little as five, or four, and three quarters per acre are often grown ; and as a good deal of seed is sown, I suppose the average produce of the county does not exceed five quarters per acre, over and above the seed sown.
The straw is given to cattle as fodder, who eat the chaffy awn, and slender part of the straw near it pretty clean, but leave the stalky lower end of the straw : the whole is sometimes cut together in a straw-cutting machine unthrashed ; grain and straw as food for horses, but a little corn required in addition : oats are principally consumed by horses, of which a great many are kept and bred in the county, after selecting some of the best samples for making oatmeal ; though no oat bread is consumed in this county, yet there is a demand in every private family for oatmeal to thicken gruel, pottage, &c. I suppose for these purposes the consumption of each family, on the average, may be put at two bushels of oats per annum ; and it is doubtless very wholesome and nutritious.
The county contains by the Population Act about 28,000 families ; the domestic consumption of which annually, by the above estimate, will be 7000 quarters, or the produce of 1400 acres.
The whole growth of the county under courses of crops is estimated at 30,000 acres ; the produce of which, at five quarters per acre, is 150,000 quarters-See Consumption of Oats, under the article, Horses. I suppose the growth of oats in the county is not greater than its consumption.

Sect. VIII - PEASE.

The growth of pease in the country is not considerable ; by much the least of any grain or pulse : I suppose the whole growth, gardens and gardeners included, does not exceed 2000 acres. At Queeniborough, and in the vale of Belvoir, pease are sown upon one ploughing of a clover lay or turf land ; and as the drill does not do well on this land, and there is no dibbling of pease in practice here, they are consequently sown broad cast, and harrowed in ; and in the common fields they are little sown in the same course, with and instead of beans.
A small proportion of pease are sown at Dishley, and with Cooke's drill, if it be broken land. Mr. Watkinson, of Woodhouse, also sows pease, and sometimes with Cooke's drill ; he prefers pease, on account of their coming off the land early, and giving time for the growth of stubble coleseed, which is eaten off in the spring early, and followed by turnips. When Cooke's drill is used for pease, every other row is omitted, and three only sown at a time, at about 18 inches distance ; and when at a proper growth they are hand-hoed. No manure is used purposely for pease ; they are sown early in the spring, generally in March : the sorts, a white and a blue pea for domestic use, and a gray pea for hogs. Podding for the market is seldom or never attended to by farmers, that being here the appropriate business of the professional gardeners : I should reckon the produce from three to five quarters, average four quarters per acre. Horses are fond of the straw, but it is apt to give them the gripes, and therefore unwholesome for them.

Sect. IX - BEANS.

The county of Leicester was formerly much more famous for beans than at present. About the middle of the last century, when one half of the county was in common field culture, it is probable that one-half of the land of the common field parishes was in the three-shift system of fallow, wheat, beans ; this would give 40,000 acres of beans, the same quantity of wheat, and an equal quantity of fallow, supposing the practicable land of the county, as stated in Chap.i, to be 480,000 acres ; but it appears from the rotation of crops, that the beans now grown in the county, do not exceed 10,000 acres.
In all the ancient accounts of the county, beans are named as one of its staple productions, but I do not think they are at all famous for them at present ; indeed, I took the liberty of telling some respectable farmers, that they had lost the art in growing them ; and it is very probable, that the old system of fallow every third year, with the manure of the farm returned upon the fallow, kept the land full as kindly for beans as the present system.
The soil most and best adapted for beans, is well known to be a mellow deep loam, with which Leicestershire abounds. They are now grown as usual in the few remaining open fields, after fallow wheat, either by ploughing up the stubble, sowing the beans broad cast, and harrowing them in ; or, by sowing the beans on the wheat stubble, and ploughing them in ; in either case, one ploughing only is necessary, and no harrowing in the latter. Rolling is, I believe, never applied to bean ground, and though they do best on rich land, they are seldom or never manured for purposely.
Beans can be drilled in by a machine only on loose ground: Mr. Rutherford, at Lord Moira’s, after oats gives the oat stubble three ploughings, and drills in beans by Bailey’s drill, in rows at two feet three inches ; these are first horse-hoed, and afterwards well cleaned by hand ; produce four quarters per acre generally, and he expects they will not be less this year, 1807, which has been peculiarly bad for beans. They were harvested in September, and the ground working for wheat to be sown by Cooke’s drill.
Mr. Stone (Barrow) had 20 acres of beans dibbled in by hand, 1807, at the expense of 10s. 6d. per acre : the crop indifferent, but the land intended to be sown with wheat.
Mr. Stone’s beans were set upon turf land once ploughed.
At Queeniborough, Mr. Grahame informed me, that beans are sometimes set by hand, after one ploughing of turf or clover lay, in which, the saving of seed is supposed to pay the extra labour, two to three bushels only being set, or three to four bushels sown broad cast ; the bushel 34 quart, but he supposes no advantage in the crop. I suppose the principal advantage in drilling, or dibbling, consists in the opportunity it gives of hoeing, and thereby cleaning the crop of weeds, and moulding up the roots of the plant : without which, the intent of those operations is incomplete.
At Dishley, beans have been drilled in by one of Hanford’s hoppers, attached to a double furrow plough, dropping a row in every other furrow, and ploughing them in ; this gives an opportunity of hand-hoeing and moulding up at pleasure by hand, but was merely meant as an experiment, as few beans are regularly grown there.
I suppose that at present more than one-half of the beans of the county are sown broadcast, upon turf-land once ploughed, and which having lain some years is liable to throw up the perennial grasses with great luxuriance after sudden spring showers and warm weather : this has been the case this season 1807, for I found the beans in August very generally choked up with grass and weeds, so as not to be half a crop ; in many places they were mowing them green, which is never the case here when they are worth standing till ripe, and is merely done to clear the ground of rubbish. I heard some farmers observe they should not have above six or eight bushels per acre, which I attribute wholly to their bad culture. In the vale of Evesham, Worcestershire, the bean crop is this year at least double to theirs, merely from superior culture.
The harvesting of beans is in September, the produce this year from one quarter per acre to four, average but little above two quarters per acre ; general average said to be four quarters per acre, the deficiency will consequently make beans scarce and dear in this county ; the straw is of no use but to rot as manure, it is hardly fit for litter.

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