The forty oxen which go off are fummered in the beft pafture, and finished with turnips the enfuing winter. The ufual way has been to draw the turnips, and to give them either stalled or in cribs placed in the yard, with plenty of ftraw to browle and fie upon but laft winter an experiment was tried, which answered extremely well, and will be again repeated next winter: this was, penning the oxen by day upon the turnip land, in the manner that theep are penned, with this only difference, that the turnips were thrown up into cribs, inftead of being left to be trodden into the ground and in the nights they were driven into a yard, with a tenporary fled well littered with rushes, fern, and leaves, and turnips and barley-ftraw given to them in cribs. They thrived very faft, and every one of them made at least eight loads of good muck in the night-yard, befides the benefit done in treading and dunging on the land in the day-time, which was very great, the foil being very light. The refult of the ox fyftem is, that charging the ox for his agiftment the. firft year, for the value of the grafs and turnips the last year, and putting what he has in three intermediate years as an equivalent for his labour, after every allowance for riik, each ox will pay at leaft twenty per cent. profit. In what inftance does a horfe produce fo much?

I do not contend that the ox can be ufed on all foils; upon a very ftony foil he cannot: nor can the horfe in all places be wholly excluded from husbandry; but every occupier of a large farm may at leaft ufe fome oxen to very great advantage. They are all worked at Windfor in collars, as their step is found to be VOL XLII.

much more free than when coupled together with yokes; and they are found to do their work with much greater eafe in collars than in yokes, which ought every where to be exploded.

The different kinds of oxen are in fome meafure fuited to the foil. Upon the Norfolk farm, which is a light foil, the Devonshire fort are ufed; upon the Flemish farm, where the foil is ftrong and heavy, the Herefordshire; and in the park, where the bufinefs is carting, harrowing, and rolling, the Glamorganfhire. They are all excellent in their different stations.

It may not be improper to mention a very fimple method which has been discovered, of firft training them to the collar, which is nothing more than putting a broad ftrap round their necks, and fastening one end of a cord to it, and the other to a large log of wood, and letting the ox draw it about as he feeds in his pafture, for three or four days, before he is put into harness, by which means he is very much brought forward in docility.

I have before observed, that twenty per cent. may be confidered as the average profit of an ox; ftating them to be bought in at 10%. and allowing them to fell for 251. taking off 107. for the two years they are not worked: but last year, beans being of very little value, they were kept longer than ufual, by being ftall-fed with bean-meal, which anfwered very well, as they were brought to an average of nearly 301.; and one of them, a Glamorganthire ox, originally bought for St. and, from his compact round make, always called the little ox, thrived to fuch a furprifing degree, that he became too fat to be able to D d

travel

travel to Smithfield, and was therefore fold to Mr. Charlwood a neighbouring butcher, for 477.

Next to the advantage obtained from oxen, as much benefit as poffible has been endeavoured to be derived from sheep, by means of the fold. Two ewe flocks are kept, of four hundred each: the foil being light and dry, admits of winterfolding (except when the weather is wet) upon the young clover; a practice much to be recommended, as it is productive of a great crop of clover, and prepares the land the enfuing autumn for a crop of wheat without any farther afliftance. Another excellent practice is folding upon light land, in dry weather, immediately upon the fowing of the wheat, which may be put forward, or, kept back, a fortnight or three weeks on that account; and it is not amifs to have the fold rather large, and to give the theep a turn or two round the fold in a morning before they are let out, to tread and fettle the land, which does a great deal of good, over and above their dung.

A third method of folding has been found to answer almoft beyond defcription. This was first tried in the winter of 1793; but from an idea of the shepherd, that it injured the sheep, has been fince difufed: but as there is good reason to believe that there was no just ground for such an opinion, it is meant to be revived next winter.

A dry fheltered fpot is felected, and fods of maiden earth, a foot deep, are laid over the fpace of a very large fold. It is then hedded thinly with rushes, leaves of trees, fern, mofs, fhort ftraw, or ftubble; and in hard or wet weather, the flock, instead of being penned upon the clover, in the open fields, is put

into this warmer fold, where the ufual quantity of hay is given to them in racks; and every night they are fo penned, the fold is fresh littered. When this has been continued, at intervals, during the winter, a layer of lime, chalk, rubble, or afhes, fix inches thick, is fpread over the whole furface; and when it has heated together, about the month of April, the whole is turned up, and mixed together, and makes the very beft manure that can be ufed for turnips.

I have been particular in defcribing these methods of folding, as they are not common in any place, and in others entirely unknown, and to gentlemen who have parks and large plantations which afford abundance of leaves, this hint may be the more deferving attention.

Upon the Norfolk farm, the land not having been yet marled or clayed, the clover is apt fometimes to fail, which is alfo the cafe elfewhere, upon the fame fort of land. When this happens, his majefty does what every other perfon in a fimilar fituation fhould do; instead of letting the ground remain unproductive, the next year it is fowed with vetches, which are nearly as valuable as the clover, and wheat always grows remarkably kind after them.

As to implements, the Norfolkplough is chiefly what is used; and upon a light foil, it is certainly preferable to any other. It ploughs a cleaner furrow, by completely moving the whole body of earth, and inverts it much better than any other plough; and to establish its fuperiority over the common ploughs of the neighbourhood, I need only add, that from its conftruction it is nearly the draught of an ox eafier.

There

There is likewife a Norfolk-harrow, very useful for harrowing what are called bruh-turnips, or any other turnips, preparatory to their being hoed. I must be allowed, likewife, to mention the drill roller, which confifts of caft-iron rings, made at the Norwich foundry, and flipped on upon a round piece of wood, as an axle-tree. This is one of the best things that has ever been introduced, for the preparation of the land for any fort of corn, where the foil will admit of its being ufed. By the corn being fo well depofited, it takes better root, and at least one fourth of the quantity ufually fown may be faved.

The Flemish farm, which I have before mentioned, was fo named from an intention at firft, of carrying on a fyftem of husbandry fimilar to that practifed in Flanders, which confifts of an alternate crop for man and beaft: but the foil being strong and cohefive, upon trial, it has been found to answer beft under a fourcourfe fhift, more like fome parts of Gloucestershire; as thus, firft year, wheat; fecond, cabbage or clover; third, oats; fourth, beans. The quantity of arable land on this farm is one hundred and fixty acres, or forty acres in a fhift. There are two things obferved upon this farm, which may be worth notice: the firft is the practice which has for thefe two years paft been adopted, of taking off the tops of the beans juft as the bloom is fet; this not only improves the quality, but increafes the quantity, and caufes them to ripen fooner, which is a confiderable advantage, by giving time to get the fucceeding crop of wheat in, perhaps, a fortnight earlier. The other is, that of lowing clover early in the fpring, among

twenty acres or one half of the wheat, and bufh-harrowing and rolling it in. This has produced a very fair crop of clover the next year; and the other half, after the wheat, is winter and fpring fallowed, and planted with cabbage. There is a double advantage refulting from this; that one half of this fhift, fo managed, becomes a fummer crop, and the other half a winter crop, and by obferving the next year to change the parts, by fowing the clover where the cabbage was before, the clover and cabbage do not come round upon the fame ground but once in eight years.

Cabbage has been tried feveral years, but his majesty's husbandmen never got into the right management of it till this year; but now the crop is remarkably fine.

It will not be improper to mention, that the drum-headed cabbage is the beft fort; that the feed fhould be fown in Auguft, the plants firft fet out in November, and tranfplanted for good in July. The next thing to be noted is their application: they are certainly inferior to turnips for fatting, but fuperior in the increase of milk, either of cows or ewes, and therefore they are particularly good where there is a dairy or a breeding flock of fheep: and I truft his majefty will, the next yeaning fealon, try an experiment, of which I have high expectation, which is to flice or quarter the cabbage, and feed the ewes with them upon fuch of the meadows as want manuring, which I flatter myfelf will be of ineftimable fervice to the ewes and lambs, and be the means of increafing the next years crop of hay confiderably.

The true light of viewing thefe improvements is to confider them as a fort

D d 2

a fort of new creation to the public; for, as it is a fact not to be controverted, that the reduced number of acres in the park, from their improved ftate, fupport as many deer and other cattle as the whole did before, the produce obtained from the farms is all clear gain; and as the crop of wheat and rye from the 140 acres fown, upon the most moderate calculation, may be fet at 3,360 bushels, and allowing fix bufhels to a human mouth, this gives a yearly provifion in bread for 560 people; to fay nothing of the fatting off of 40 oxen, the breed of 800 fheep, and the growth of at leaft 5000 bushels of oats and beans; all of which, it must be obferved, goes in aid of the public market, as the work is done by oxen entirely.

As more experiments are in future made, I may perhaps trouble the focicty with an account of them, as I am perfuaded they cannot be registered any where else, to give them the eredit, and to excite the

imitation I flatter myself they may deferve: but for the prefent, I fhall close my obfervations upon his majefty's farms with a description of his mill, which I confider as the moft benevolent thing that can be done for the poor, and which I moft earneftly recommend to all gentlemen of landed property, who have like means of doing it. A fmall over-fhot mill is erected, and worked by the wafte water from the lake below the lodge, where a fufficiency of corn, two-thirds wheat and onethird rye, is ground, dreffed, and given to all the labourers, at fixteen pence per ftone of fourteen pounds, in quantities fuitable to the fize of their families which is the first of ail comforts to them, and a saving of at leaft twenty per cent. from what it would coft them to buy it from the mealmen or fhopkeepers.

I am, fir,

Your obedient humble fervant, Nathaniel Kent.

Craig's Court, 'OA. 30, 1798..

Criminal Profecutions against Witches in the 17th Century; from Nichols's Hiftory of Leicestershire.

HE following letter from alder

cefter, to his brother fir William, in the year 1616, relates to an extraordinary tranfaction which took place at Husbands Bosworth.

"Although we have bene greatly bufyed this 4 or 5 days paft, being fyfe tyme, and a bufy fyfe fpeacylly about the araynment of a fort of woomen, wytches, wt 9 of them fhal be executed at the gallows this fornone, for bewitching of a younge gentellman of the adge of 12 or 13 years old, beinge the fon of one Mr. Smythe, of Hufbands Bosworth, brother to Mr. Henry Smythe, that made the booke which we call Mr. Smythe's Sarmons. Your man Sampfon ftays, and yt is to tedyous to write anny one thing unto you of the matter; and the examynacyons and finding out of the matter came to my hand in wryting just as I began your lettar. Only I will fignifye unto you of the child's ftraunge fits, who was brought hythar of Sayturday laft to be fhewed to the -judges; and fince his coming hither he hath had dyvars wonderful ftraundg fyts in the fyght of all the greateft parfons here, as dyvars kpyghts and ladies, and many othars

woolld ftryke himfelife fuche bloes on his breft, being in his fhirt, that you myght here the found of yt the length of a long chamber, foumtymes 50 bloes, foumtyms 100, yea foumtymes 2 or 300 bloes, that the leaft of them was able to ftryke doune a ftrong man; and yet all he did to himself did him no hurt. 6 of the witches had 6 severall sperits, one in the lyknes of a hors, another like a dog, another a cat, another a pullemar, another a fifhe, another a code, with whom every one of them tormented him he wooll make foom fyne according to the fperit; as, when the hors torment> ed him, he would whinny; when the cat tormented him, he would cry like a cat, &c. When he was in his fyt, they were foumtymes brought to him, and then they were chardged to fpeake farten woords, and to name theare fperits, and one of them to fpeak yt aftar another; as thus: "I fuch a one chardge the hors, yf I be a wiche, that thon com forthe of the child." And then another by her fperit to doe the like; and fo till all had doone. Yf anny of them woolld fpeake a woord Dd3 contrary