AGRICULTURE better understood in Rutland than in many counties. There is less waste of grass, and the ground is generally stocked with an equal and proper proportion of cattle and sheep, with a small quantity of horses, so that the sorts of grass suitable to each of the different palates of those animals are all taken off.' There was very little dairying in the county. In various parts there were common cow grounds for the cottagers ; at Hambleton one of 114 acres divided into gi separated ' pastures ' let at 30J. a year, and each pasture was stocked with one cow, or four barren sheep, or three ewes and lambs, from old May Day to old Michaelmas Day, and with two and a half sheep or three lambs, from old Michaelmas Day to old Lady Day, no stock being allowed on the land for the remainder of the year. Much even of the good land was undrained, and the system of drainage in use very primitive ; besides the old stone drains, that is those filled in at the bottom with loose stones, there were sod drains made as follows: the upper part of the trench was opened with a common spade, from 9 to 12 inches wide at the bottom, a smooth even bottom being left, in the middle of which a narrow channel was sunk with a draining tool, and cleared with a scoop to the required depth. There was thus left a fair shoulder on either side above the narrow channel and on them the sod was laid grass side downwards, and trodden down firm at the sides, the upper part of the trench being then filled in. It may be readily understood that such drains frequently became stopped up, yet Marshall saw some after twenty years' use working well, and the cost was only a penny a yard. The use of oxen ^^ in Rutland as draught animals had by this time apparently been long discontinued, and horses were universal, some tolerably good black ones being bred, but taking them altogether they were very inferior in quality. One man attended to a team of six, and a wagoner and his lad could manage two teams, which were often harnessed in a manner described as truly ridiculous ; the harness standing up awkwardly high above the horses' back ' like the sail fin of the nautilus, as if it were intended to catch the wind ' and hasten or retard the horse. Very few cattle were reared, and those of no particular breed and mostly bad ones, but in 1794 a few of Bakewell's Longhorns and some Devons had been introduced for breeding purposes. Grazing, however, was the principal business, the cattle most in request for that object being Irish and small Scotch, some of which were very good and others very poor. After one summer's grass they were sent to London, for there was little stall feeding, though some had hay in the fields and were kept on till Christmas. It was also the custom to buy two-year-old Short- horn heifers of the Durham breed and sell them at three years old in calf to dealers who took them to London or the dairy counties.^' In 1806 there were estimated to be 7,780 cattle in the county. The sheep of the county are described as of the ' polled long wool kind,' and these, like all stock and crops, were very inferior in the old open fields to those in the inclosed lands, though many even of these were stocked with ' creatures that would disgrace the meanest land in the kingdom.' The favourite breed was the Old Leicestershire, but on the Lincoln side the Lincolnshire was prevalent. The famous New Leicestershire of Robert Bakewell of Dishley was, however, finding its way into the district, and as much as 50 guineas had been given for the hire of a ram, although for the old sort only 2 to 5 guineas was the usual price.^^ According to Marshall the majority of breeders and graziers in Rutland were against the new breed,^ and it was preferred for crossing and not in its entirety, for it was said not to produce so much wool as the Old Leicestershire sort, though it had a better carcass and fattened quicker. The chief markets for sheep then were London, and Melton Mowbray where they were sold to go north. The period of the great war with France which ended with the battle of Waterloo is generally held up as one exceedingly prosperous for agriculture. Prices were enormous, wheat in December 1800 reaching ^6 13;. ^d. a quarter, its highest price in modern history, though if the comparative purchasing power of money is taken into account, some mediaeval prices were much higher. The landowner and farmer profited greatly, the labourer not at all, but even for the former there must have been a reverse side to the picture, for taxation was crushing, the very cart-horses being subject to a heavy tax ; and rates, chiefly to supplement the labourers' wretched wages, were very high. At all events with the peace the edifice of artificial prosperity came down with a run, so suddenly that a few months afterwards rents in some parts of England fell 30 per cent. " Marshall, Rural Econ. of Mid. Cos. i, 133. Marshall, like Walter of Henley five hundred years earlier, held that oxen were equal to every work of husbandry in most situations, and, unlike the horse, were useful when their working days were over. " Crutchley, op. cit. 1 6. It was in 1 795 that the famous Durham ox of Charles Colling, weighing 3,024 lb. at 5^ years old, sold for ;^I40. The improvement effected by Bakewell and the Collings maybe gathered from the fact that in 1710 the average weight of beeves at Smithfield was 370 lb., in I 795 800 lb. '* Not long before this B.ikewell had let a ram for one year for 1,200 guineas. ^' Rural Eion. of Mid. Cos. i, 317. Marsh.ill says the new breed produced more wool per acre than the old, the Great Bakewellian controversy as to their respective merits being then at its height. 245
