Arthur Young on English farming practices, 1770
(Arthur Young's Six Month's Tour through the North of England (1770), Vol. I, pp. 3436; in J. F. C. Harrison, ed., Society and Politics in England, 1780-1960, New York:
Harper & Row, 1965, pp. 23-24. Young describes farming practice in Bedfordshire.)
From Wooburn to Neteport Pagnell, the soil has a great variety; for some miles it is quite
a light sand, and then a gravel with some light loams: About Wanden the soil is chiefly
sand, but few of their farms are very large, they run from 30l. to 200l. a year; their field
land lets at an average for about 7s. 6d. an acre, and their enclosures from 10s. to 12s..
Their course of crop is,
1. Fallow
2. Wheat or barley
3. Beans and pease
And
1. Fallow
2. Rye
3. Turnips
4. Barley
They plough four times for wheat, sow two bushels an acre, and reap on a medium
three quarters. For barley they stir four times, sow four bushels, and get in return about
three quarters. For oats they plough but once, sow four bushels, and reap at an average
three quarters. For pease and beans mixed they likewise plough but once, sow four
bushels, their crop not above 2 and 1/2 quarters. They give but one tilth for beans alone,
sow them broad-cast, never hoe them, but turn in sheep to feed off the weeds, and reckon
three quarters a middling crop. For turnips they stir three or four times, hoe them twice,
reckon the value at about 40s. an acre, and feed them off with sheep alone. They use four
or five horses at length in their ploughs, and yet do no more than an acre a day: This
miserable management cannot be too much condemned. The product of a cow they lay at
near 41. They let their dairies at 3l. a head. The particulars I gained of a farm are,
100 Acres
£60 Rent
8 Horses
12 Cows
200 Sheep (a walk)
2 Servants
3 Labourers
Bread .
.
.
.
1 3/4d.
Cheese .
.
.
.
4
Butter .
.
.
.
7
Beef .
.
.
.
3 1/2
Mutton .
.
.
.
4
Veal
.
.
.
.
3
Pork .
.
.
.
3 1/2
Candles .
.
.
.
7
Soap
.
.
.
.
6 1/2
Labourers house rent, per annum, 30s. to 50s.
Wear of their tools, 15s.
Their firing they get off the common.
Labour
In harvest, 35s. the month and board.
In hay time, 1s a day and victuals.
In winter, from 8d. to 1s. a day, and no beer,
Reaping wheat, 5s. 6d.
Mowing corn, 1s. 6d.
-Grass, 2s. and 2s. 6d.