General View of the Agriculture of the County of Devon: With Observations on the Means of Its Improvement

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R. Phillips, 1808 - Agriculture - 479 pages
 

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Page iii - AGRICULTURE to come to a resolution to reprint such as appear on the whole fit for publication. It is proper at the same time to add, that the Board does not consider itself responsible for every statement contained in the Reports thus reprinted, and that it will thankfully acknowledge any additional information which may still be communicated. . . NB Letters to the Board, may be addressed to Sir JOHN SINCLAIR, Bart, the President, No.
Page 123 - Machines," we discover some account of packsaddlc furniture, used in horse-back carriage. — P. 127. " The long crooks generally affixed to the pack-saddles, for the purpose of removing corn, hay, straw, turf, or faggots, from such hills and side-lands as are deemed inaccessible to wheel-carriages, are formed to correspond with the curve of the pack-saddle, to descend rather below the line of the horse's girth, there to curve outwardly, forming a bottom of from twenty inches to two feet in width...
Page 322 - ... which lie wide and open ; the hind quarters seated high with flesh, leaving a fine hair-ham tapering from the hock to the fetlock ; long from rump to huckle, and from the pinion of the shoulder to the end of the nose ; thin loose skin, covered with hair of a soft and furry nature, inclined to curl whenever the animal is in good condition and in full coat, when it also becomes mottled with darker shades of its permanent color, which is that of a bright blood red, without white, or other spots,...
Page 138 - ... large tree, the panniers are examined, and buns, cakes, and all such articles are found, as the confectionary skill of the farmer's wife could produce for gratifying the appetites of her customary guests at this season. After the drinkings are over, which generally consume from half to...
Page 361 - This first impression, however, will be at once removed on the traveller's meeting with, or being overtaken by, a gang of pack-horses. The rapidity with which these animals descend the hills, when not loaded, and the utter impossibility of passing loaded ones, require that the utmost caution should be used in keeping out of the way of the one, and exertion in keeping ahead of the other.
Page 138 - ... of the day. By eleven or twelve o'clock the ale and cider has so much warmed and elevated their spirits, that their noisy jokes and ribaldry are heard to a considerable distance, and often serve to draw auxiliary force within the accustomed time. The dinner, consisting of the best meat and vegetables, is carried into the field between twelve and one o'clock ; this is distributed with copious draughts of ale and cider ; and by two o'clock the pastime of cutting and binding the wheat is resumed,...
Page 138 - ... draw the reaping and binding of the field together with the close of the evening ; this done, a small sheaf is bound up and set upon the top of one of the ridges, when the reapers retiring to a certain distance, each throws his reap-hook at the sheaf until one more fortunate, or less inebriated than the rest, strikes it down. This achievement is accompanied with the utmost stretch and power of the voices of the company, uttering words very indistinctly, but somewhat to this purpose...
Page 472 - Seedsmen and Nurserymen to the Board of Agriculture, Corner of Half-Moon-Street, Piccadilly, London : Who also Sell every Article in the Nursery and Seed Line ; and with whom Bailiffs, wanting Places, leave their Address, and particulars of Situations in which they have previously teen. Barley. Isle of Thanet . — . Norfolk. Naked. _—— Winter. Beans. Small Essex. Tick. — Mazagan. Broom. Common yellow. Buck, or French wheat. Burnct. Cabbage. Gibbs
Page 322 - ... animal, and in its being so much tucked up in the girth as to show an awkward cavity between the keel and navel, the line of which, it is presumed, should always be found to hold a position as nearly as possible parallel with that of the back from the withers to the loin. The animal is, however, generally well grown, and filled up behind the shoulder.
Page 137 - The wheat being ready to cut down, and amounting to from ten to twenty acres, notice is given in the neighbourhood that a reaping is to be performed on a particular day, when, as the farmer may be more or less liked in the village, on the morning of the day appointed, a gang consisting of an indefinite number of men and women assemble at the field, and the reaping commences after breakfast, which is seldom over till between eight and nine o'clock. This company is open for additional hands to drop...

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