An address to the public; shewing, the damage done to plowed lands by stripping them of stones, &c.

  • Hertfordshire Farmer.
Date:
[1750?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An address to the public; shewing, the damage done to plowed lands by stripping them of stones, &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    An ADDRESS to the PUBLIC; SHEWING, That many Kinds of Ploughed Land are totally ruined by being ftripped of the Flints and other Stones. TT has been a Thing well known for a great while to feveraj of I the moft experienced Farmers in many Parts of England, that taking away the fmall Stones and Flints is highly detrimental tq almoft all Kinds of Plowed Land, but particularly fo to thin ftapled or light Lands, and to all Lands of a binding Nature. This I find has been long the Opinion of many experienced Farmers in different Parts of the Kingdom; but it never did, I believe, enter the Thoughts of any one till of late Years, that the Damage could be nearly fo great as it is now found to be, fince unufual Quantities of Flints and other Stones have been repeatedly gathered for the Ufe of the Turnpike Roads; indeed, the Damage done by this Pra&ice to many Kinds of Land, efpecially to fuch as are men¬ tioned above, is found to be fo great, as to be almoft incredible to any one, who has not particularly obferved, for a Number of Years, the Progrefs of this Deftru&ion. I {hall here give a few Inftances, out of a great many that have come to my Knowledge, from which it will appear how exceedingly great the Damage mult be throughout the Extent of the Kingdom. In the Parifh of Stevenage in Hertfordfinre, there is a Field of Land, well known in that Neighbourhood by the Name of Chalkdell- field) containing about 200 Acres: The Land in this Field was for¬ merly equal, if not fuperior, to moft Lands in that County; in a Word, it was good to a Proverb: Rut, lying convenient for the Surveyors of the Roads, they have picked it fo often, and ftripped it of the Flints and fmall Stones to fuch a Degree, that it is now inferior to Lands that were formerly reckoned not much above Half its Value, Acre for Acre ; I mean, fuch Lands as, lying at a good Diftance from the Roads, have, for that Reafon, either not been picked at ail, or not nearly fo much as this Field : All the Farmers, and all other Perfons who have known the Field for a good Number of Years, and have obferved the Management and Produce of it, do unanimoufly declare, that the Crops of Grain from Chalkdellfield have not, for thefe laft Fourteen Years, been much, if any, above Half what they were the Fourteen Years immediately preceding; and this, notwithftanding the late Improvements in Husbandry, and entirely owing, as they all agree, to ftripping the Land of the Stones. Nor is it Chalkdellfieid alone that has ma¬ terially fuffered in that County by the above-mentioned Pra&ice; on the contrary, the oldeft and moft experienced Farmers in the Pariflies of Gravely, Stevenage, 8tc. feme of whom have been well acquainted with Farming for upwards of Thirty or Forty Years, and have in general lived always on the Spot, do declare, and fay they are ready to declare it upon Oath if called upon, that feverai Thoufand