A HISTORY OF HEREFORDSHIRE no mention of fruit sold, and that cider should have to be purchased. The drink bill is large ; if the beer and cider cost 6d. a gallon, 2,400 gallons were consumed, or more than six and a half a day, Sundays included. The large road wagons which had only been introduced in the county about the middle of the 1 8th century, before which time the ox wain was the only farm carriage of the district,^^ carried 3^ tons and were drawn by six horses, two abreast ; they and the carts had tires 6 in. broad, though both carts and wagons with narrow wheels were used. The plough most in fashion was the ' light Lammas ' without a wheel, drawn by three or four horses, according to the nature of the soil, which had superseded a longer and heavier implement. A thrashing machine had lately been erected in the parish of Bridge Sollars which could thrash 80 bushels of wheat in a day, and required the labour of two men, three boys, and four horses. With very few exceptions wheat was sown broadcast, ' drilling or setting by the hand has been very rarely resorted to here ; ' ^' the heaviest crops were grown in the vicinity of Hereford and on the clay lands towards Ledbury, which were generally reaped by men from South Wales. They usually came into the county in parties of four or five, with one horse unencumbered with bridle or saddle, between them, which they rode in turns, thus getting over the ground very quickly. Each gang was represented by a foreman who agreed to reap the whole farm at a fixed price per acre. The hop was prevalent more or less all over the county but chiefly towards Worcestershire, and had increased much of late years, but 5 cwt. per hop acre was considered a fair crop. It is interesting to learn that the ' Swedish turnip has been introduced but a few seasons, and has made very considerable progress; its superior ability to resist the attacks of wet and cold are well known, and form very strong recommendations for its culture.' Lucerne, too, had lately been planted in the county by several farmers with much profit. The decay of the old and most valuable fruits of Herefordshire was the subject of much lamentation, but more efforts had been made to renovate them and introduce new sorts during the last two decades of the 18th century than in the previous hundred years.^" Draining was not much resorted to, and when it was it was done as in other parts of England at that time in a primitive fashion, narrow channels being dug to a proper depth which were filled with small or broken stones about twelve inches deep from the bottom, the stones being covered with inverted turf, and over that the soil removed was replaced. This was considered a great improvement on the wooden drains ' now justly abolished.' The breadth at the top was 8 to 10 in., at the bottom 6 to 8 in., and the drains were 2^ to 3 ft. deep. The Hon. Edward Foley at Stoke Edith had lately drained some land by means of a plough, drawn by four or more horses, having an iron cylinder pointed at one end which was thus forced through the soil, an experiment which appeared to succeed on clay soil. Hollow bricks had also been used successfully ; but though the Agricul- tural Society in 1797 offered a premium for an improved mode of drainage, no one had come forward to claim it. Herefordshire breeders at this period had sacrificed the qualities of the cow to those of the ox ; ' he does not value his cow according to the price which the grazier will give for it, but in propor- tion as it possesses that form and character which experience has taught him to be conducive to the excellence of the future ox.' Hence the Herefordshire cow was small, extremely delicate, and very feminine in its character, but there was an extraordinary difference between the cow and the ox bred from her, the latter being often three times the weight of its dam. Nearly half the ploughing in the county was done by oxen, who, when they were used on hard roads, were shod with iron. In breeding them, therefore, their capacity as beasts of draught, as well as their fattening qualities, was considered. ^^ It is hard to realize to-day that Herefordshire cattle for Smithfield market had to be driven all the way a hundred years ago, and for this reason most of the fat stock was disposed of at Hereford Michaelmas Fair, ' when five or six years old,' to the graziers of Buckinghamshire and the home counties to be prepared for the London markets. The Ryeland was the chief breed of sheep, for the quality of their wool, described as unrivalled in the whole of England.^^ A cross had lately been made between them and ' the new Leicester sorts,' which Bakewell of Dishley had done so much to improve, but it had not improved the wool. The Southdown had also just been introduced, and in one case crossed with the Ryelands, but not '^ Marshall, Rural Econ. ofGlouc. ii, 196. " Gen. View of Agric. ofHerefs. (1805), 52. '" Ibid. 79. ^' Marshall, Rural Econ. ofGlouc. ii, 196, says, 'In Herefordshire working oxen are the principal object of breeding.' '^ ' The Herefordshire wool has been long famed for the silkiness of its pile and the delicacy of its texture and is particularly sought after hy all those manufacturers where the finest broadcloth is made ; ' Introductory Sketches towards a Topographical Hist, of the co. of Heref. by Rev. John Lodge, 1793. The wool of Leo- minster was often called Leominster Ore, and in 1783 sold at 2S. a lb. when the ordinary wool of the king- dom fetched 4</. 412
