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ties of Leicester, Lincoln, Northampton, parts of Yorkshire and Durham, with Somersetshire, are conspicuous. The dairy counties are Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Shropshire, Wilts, Bucks, Devonshire, Dorsetshire, Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, and Yorkshire. The arable farms of greatest extent are found in Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Essex, Hertfordshire, Hampshire, Bedfordshire, and Berks.

Wheat, our most important grain, is grown in all the last-mentioned districts, to the extent of 3,200,000 acres, which yield about twenty bushels on an average per acre. The barley counties are Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, Bedfordshire, Leicestershire, Nottingham, and Berkshire, with the upper parts of Herefordshire, Warwickshire, and Shropshire. Oats are grown in the northern and fenny tracts of the eastern and midland counties. Rye, which is not so much cultivated as formerly, is found in the higher and sandy soils of the hilly districts: as are peas. Beans flourish in all the strong lands of the kingdom: and clover, tares, and sainfoin are, like potatoes, every where to be found. The last, however, attain their greatest perfection in Lancashire and Cheshire. Turnips are also considered, in most counties, a general crop, and frequently adopted instead of the naked fallow of the old farmers. Cabbages are in some districts grown as food for cattle. Hemp and flax are also occasionally cultivated. Hops distinguish Kent, Sussex, and Surrey; they are also grown in Essex, Hampshire, Nottinghamshire, Worcestershire, and Herefordshire: but Farnham (Surrey) has long been noted for the best of these precarious crops. Seeds and medicinal plants of various kinds are reared on a large scale in several parts of England; as canary-seed, in the Isle of Thanet; coriander and carraway, in Essex; mustard, in Durham, the Isle of Ely, and Essex; rape, in the counties of York and Lincoln; poppy-seed and saffron, in Essex and Cambridgeshire; madder and woad, in Kent; and chamomile, in Derbyshire. Apples, pears, plums, cherries, peaches, apricots, nectarines, currants, gooseberries, raspberries, and other garden fruits are produced in great plenty throughout the country; but the wet weather, and the changeable nature of our climate generally, are injurious to their perfection. Artichokes, asparagus, cauliflowers, cabbages, coleworts, brocoli, peas, beans, kidney-beans, spinage, beets, lettuce, celery, endive, turnips, carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, leeks, onions, and shallots (though several of them not indigenous), are now, in a manner, naturalised to our soil, and are raised in great plenty in our kitchen-gardens.

The orchards of Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Somersetshire, and Devonshire, supply the manufacturers of cyder and perry, or other parts of the country, with fruit. Marshall estimates that the four counties of Worcester, Gloucester, Hereford, and Monmouth, yield annually about 30,000 hogsheads of cyder; 10,000 of which, besides 1000 hogsheads of perry, and 1500 tons of fruit, are the produce of the first county alone. The export of fruit from that county has amounted to 2000 tons annually.

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First among the valuable animals of England ranks its breed of various descriptions of horses. The whole number kept in Great Britain has been estimated at 1,500,000, and includes every valuable variety of that noble animal. The breeds of cattle in various parts of the kingdom have been also cultivated with the greatest care. The entire number of the live stock of this kind in Great Britain is about 5,500,000. Sheep are also objects of great attention and importance throughout England. The introduction of Merinos, and the astonishing modern extent of our manufactures, have together operated as a powerful stimulus in this branch of grazing. Longwooled sheep abound on the eastern side, and in the low tracts of the island. The annual produce of their wool has been estimated at 137,000 packs, of 240 lbs. each. Short-wooled sheep are kept on all the upland districts, both of England and Wales. Their wool is fine; and the number of them is taken at nearly 15,000,000. That of the long-wooled sheep at between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000. The annual produce of short wools is supposed to amount to 231,000 packs. If the lambs be added, the total number will amount to 26,000,000, and their wool to more than 400,000 packs.

Animals of inferior consequence are the patient and degenerated ass, whose numbers are much diminished; the mule; the deer; the goat; the English mastiff and bull-dog; the fox; and the hare. The wild-cat is still found in some of the mountainous and woody parts, as well as the badger, otter, marten, several species of the weasel tribe, the squirrel, mole, dormouse and hedge-hog. No wild animals of an important size remain in any part of the kingdom; and the reptiles and numerous insect tribes are com

paratively harmless. The English birds of prey are chiefly of the eagle and hawk kinds; but the former are not frequently found: and the bustard, sometimes weighing from twenty to twenty-five pounds, may be considered as the largest of the British birds. The golden-crested wren is the least. The most admired of our songsters is the nightingale; the wheatear is the most delicate bird brought to table. Of wild fowl, the most useful are the goose, duck, teal, and widgeon, vast numbers of which are caught annually in the fens, and supply an extensive article of food. Birds of passage annually visit both North and South Britain; among which are the snipe, woodcock, and several species of plover. Game is plentiful in most counties. Poultry and domestic fowls we need hardly observe are every where seen. Many parts of the coast are well stocked with water-fowl and shell-fish; particularly lobsters, crabs, and oysters. The rivers, lakes, and surrounding seas, abound also with a great variety of other fish. The most common of those in our rivers and inland waters are the salmon, trout, pike, eel, perch, carp, sturgeon, and char. On the southern coast the migratory pilchard, and mackerel (which are only caught near the southern part of the island), abound, while herrings are common to all parts. Other much esteemed fish are the turbot, cod, sole, ling, halibut, plaice, haddock, whiting, smelt, mullet, doree, and bret. The shark is occasionally seen, and the whale visits the northern coast, where also the seal and the sun-fish appear. The fisheries round our coasts, and those of Ireland, including inland fisheries, amount in annual value to about £3,000,000 in England and Wales: in Great Britain, including Ireland, at least £10,000,000. See FISHERIES.

It has been estimated that the private property vested in the mines and minerals of England and Wales cannot be less in value than £68,000,000 sterling; and that in the whole of Great Britain, including Scotland and Ireland, the value is at least £75,000,000. Iron, copper, lead, tin, salt, alum, coals, stones of various kinds, lime, chalk, slate, &c., are found in vast quantities; and the new discoveries in chemistry have extracted many valuable productions from our minerals and fossils. But the eastern and southern parts of the kingdom are wholly destitute of these treasures. Gold has been discovered in particular spots, but in too small quantities to defray the expense of obtaining it; and silver is only to be met with in conjunction with lead or copper ore. Iron is our staple metal, and coal most abundant. Black-lead is a useful production, almost peculiar, it is said, to this country. Rock-salt is a considerable article of export. Marble, spar, and excellent stone for building, are common; together with fullers-earth and the finest clay.

The valuable article of coal abounds most in Northumberland, Cumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire; but Westmoreland is destitute of it entirely. Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Leicestershire, and Warwickshire, contain numerous reins. Gloucestershire, Somersetshire, and Monmouthshire, in the west, possess fossil coal, as also does Bovey Heath, in Devonshire.

It also extends into various parts of the principality. In 1792 it was computed that 64,724 men and boys were engaged in raising or conveying coal on the rivers Weare and Tyne; and Dr. Thompson states the length of the Newcastle coal formation, from north to south, at twentythree miles, and its medium breadth at eight miles; giving a superficial extent of more than 180 square miles, or 557,568,000 square yards. The thickness of all the seams at present worth working, is said to be about ten yards. The whole quantity of coal in this district, therefore, amounts to 5,575,680,000 cubic yards. More than 2,000,000 of chaldrons are annually exported. This, including the waste, the above writer computes at 37,000,000 of cubic yards; and, by dividing the whole quantity in the formation by this, the quotient shows that these mines may be worked at the same rate, for 1500 years, before they will be exhausted. By making the requisite reductions for what has already been worked, and other circumstances affecting the consumption, amounting to one-third of the whole, he concludes, that this formation will supply coal, at the present rate of expenditure, for 1000 years from the present time.

The iron districts are the northern parts of Lancashire, Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, and Shropshire. It is also obtained in Northumberland, Cumberland, and Durham; as well as in Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Wiltshire, Somersetshire, Devonshire, and Monmouthshire, The iron mines of England and Wales, yield together 200,000 tons of pig-iron. Lead is chiefly obtained in Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Durham, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Somersetshire, and Devonshire. Those of Derbyshire are the most ancient lead-mines in the kingdom, having been worked by the Romans. The present produce annually is about 600 tons. But those near Alston, on the borders of Cumberland and Northumberland, yield double that quantity. Britain has been considered, from a still earlier period, as the depository of tin. This, at present, is exclusively confined to the south-west promontory of the island, which yields about 300 tons annually. The people employed in the various processes by which this metal is obtained, are stated at the number of 10,000; and the yearly value of the produce at £500,000. Copper is found in various parts of the great chain of mountains which extend from Cumberland to Cornwall, and in the Isle of Anglesey. The principal mines are in Derbyshire, Anglesey, Cornwall, and Devonshire. Mr. Grenfell states, that the mines of Cornwall and Devonshire, yield about 80,000 tons of ore annually; affording not above 8000 tons of copper, the worth of which may be estimated at about £1,200,000.

Zinc appears in Derbyshire; alum in Yorkshire; gypsum in Derby and Nottingham; fullersearth in Surry, Berks, and Bedfordshire; pottersclay in Staffordshire, and at Purbeck, Dorsetshire; superior slate is found in the north of England, and in Cornwall, Devonshire, and Leicestershire.

The principal salt mines of this kingdom are those of Northwich, Cheshire. They were dis

covered in 1670; but the salt-springs of that county were known to the Romans; the whole annual produce of these mines is about 60,000 tons. The brine-springs in the vicinity of Namptwich and Middlewich, in the same county, contain about twenty-five per cent. of the fossil, and yield about 45,000 tons annually of fine white salt. Worcestershire, also, contains some productive springs; those of Droitwich yield

600,000 bushels annually. Salt is also found in a spring at Weston, Staffordshire.

Our quarries of stone, as being wholly fourd in the hilly districts or on the western side of the kingdom, are of course not available for the ordinary purposes of building at a distance: the produce of them, altogether, compared with that of the mines and iron-works, is not considerable; as appears from the following return of the

PROFITS of the QUARRIES, MINES, and IRON-WORKS, in 1810, in the counties where they are principally situated: extracted from the parliamentary papers on the property tax.

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Sir Frederick Eden in 1812 supposed £116,000,000 to be the annual amount of British manufactures insurable in Great Britain. These he distributed as follows: British manufactures for home consumption; namely, woollens £11,000,000; cotton goods £6,000,000; leather £12,000,000: flax £2,000,000; hemp £2,000,000; glass £2,000,000; paper £1,500,000; porcelain and pottery £2,000,000; silk £3,000,000; hardware £6,000,000; beer £10,000,000; spirits £4,000,000; soap £1,500,000; salt £1,000,000; candles £2,000,000; miscellaneous articles £10,000,000; making a total of £76,000,000: to which he adds, of Britisa manufactures for exportation, £40,000,000. The value of foreign merchandise deposited in warehouses, shops, &c., and either paid for or virtually paid by debts owing to this country by foreigners, has been estimated at £33,000,000 in England and Wales; at £40,000,000 in Great Britain and Ireland.

Of these the manufacture of woollens of dif

ferent kinds is the most ancient, and has been considered the staple fabric of the country. Though introduced as early as the time of the Romans, it dated its pre-eminence from the reign of Edward III., and is, at present, chiefly confined to the southern division of the island. The value of the articles annually produced is about £18,000,000, and the number of persons employed in them about 500,000. The cotton manufacture was introduced about the middle of the seventeenth century, and, at the commencement of the eighteenth, did not employ an eightieth part of its present hands. It is now unrivalled in any other country. Manchester, Preston, Bolton, Blackburn, and Wigan, are now its principal seats in England. The annual value of this manufacture to Great Britain is estimated at £20,000,000; and the number of individuals employed in it at 600,000. The linen manufacture, partly superseded by that of cotton, does not now exceed in annual value £2,000,000, or £2,500,000.

The following is an exhibition of the rise, progress, and present state of the cotton manufacture in Great Britain. From 1770 to 1780 the importation of cotton wool averaged 5,735,575 lbs. per annum; from 1781 to 1790 about 18,000,000 lbs. weight; and from 1791 to 1801 about 32,000,000. And the following is a statement of the quantity imported in each of the twentytwo years 1802-1823, distinguishing the several countries whence imported and the number of bags and bales from each respective country

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The following is an account of the official value of the cotton wool imported; the number of bags and bales, and the official value thereof re-exported; and the official and declared real value of the quantity of cotton yarn and of cotton manufactures exported to all parts of the world, except Ireland, in each of the ten years, 1814-1823.

The official values imply a fixed value assigned by the government in 1694; and may or may not have a relation to the real value of the present time; but they are important and interesting as denoting an increase or decrease of quantity.

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By the first of the above statements it appears that the total quantity of cotton wool imported in the nine years 1814-1823, has amounted to about 1,235,000,000 lbs. weight, and the stock on hand at the close of the year 1814 aaving been about 24,000,000 lbs., it makes a total quantity of 1,260,000,000 lbs. weight in the nine years to be accounted for: which has been disposed of in the following manner, viz. 1,062,000,000 lbs. weight taken for spinning; 105,000,000 ditto re-exported in a raw state; and 92,000,000 lbs. remaining on hand at the close of the year 1823.

Government used much exertion, in the seventeenth century, to improve and extend the manufacture of silk, which was greatly promoted by the settlement of the French refugees in London, Canterbury, &c. Spitalfields is, to this day, the principal place where silk weaving constitutes the employment of the population: it occupies about 30,000 people in that district of the metropolis. Coventry, Derby, Leek, and Macclesfield, also participate in this manufacture. The value of the whole produce has been stated at £4,200,000; and the persons employed, comprising a great number of women and children, is about 70,000.

The manufacture of stockings, chiefly confined to the counties of Nottingham, Leicester, and Derby, is most extensive in the first two counties. It has been computed that more than 20,000 persons in Leicestershire are employed in producing hosiery to the value of £1,500,000 annually. The goods made in Nottinghamshire are chiefly silk and cotton.

But our hardware is the most celebrated of our existing manufactures: 95,000 tons of iron, worth in the raw state £5,000,000 sterling, are supposed to be annually devoted to this object; and the men employed in working this metal to amount, at least, to 200,000. The seats of the great hardware manufactories are at Birmingham, Sheffield, and London (see CUTLERY), where,

exclusively, much of the finer and more valuable work is performed. At Birmingham, and the contiguous district of about fifteen miles each way, it is estimated that 100,000 persons are engaged in the larger works. The brass foundry, which is principally confined to that town, is supposed to employ nearly 10,000 people; the button trade from 7000 to 10,000; brace-making 1000; the jewellery and gilding business, from 6000 to 7000; and the burnishing line nearly 20,000! The aggregate annual value of Birmingham articles has been stated at £2,000,000.

Sheffield and its neighbourhood are distinguished for the making of steel, and the manufacture of cutlery and files; as well as for plated goods. The whole are supposed to occupy about 30,000 of its inhabitants, and to be worth, annually, £1,200,000. The entire annual value of articles made of iron in England and Wales is taken at £10,000,000 sterling; and the number of people employed, at 200,000: brass and copper articles at £3,000,000, and the people employed on them at 50,000: steel, plated, and hardware goods, and toys at £4,000,000, and the people employed at 70,000.

This view of the importance of our hardware manufacture will be confirmed by adverting to the following statement from returns made to the house of commons of its value annually, as an export, during three successive years.

METALS AND HARDWARE EXPORTED FROM BRITAIN, D 'RING THE YEARS FOLLOWING.

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Clocks and watches, with various jewellery articles, and cut glass, are manufactured to great perfection in the metropolis; where also all the best astronomical, optical, and other scientific instruments are exclusively made. Here alone also is the beating out of gold leaf engaged in. The plate glass and mirrors of England now rival any in the world: the value of this manufacture is estimated at £1,000,000, and the people engaged in it at 40,000.

Tanneries are of frequent occurrence in England: one of the most extensive in the metropolis engages also in the manufacture of Morocco leather, importing its superior goat skins direct from Mogador. The value of the various leather articles, annually made, such as shoes, gloves, harness, saddlery, &c., has been estimated at nearly £10,000,000.

The manufacture of earthenware and porcelain has greatly improved in this country of late.

1,033,235 2,349,676 1,987,092 479,517 752,611 675,004 200,205 284,213 302,077 236,591 324,738 331,605

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The best clay used in Staffordshire and Worcestershire, the seat of these manufactures, is brought from the Isle of Purbeck, and the coasts of Dorset and Devon. Thousands of tons of flint are also sent hither from the chalk-pits of Kent, and other materials from Cornwall. The principal places in the pottery district of Staffordshire, are Burslem and Etruria, the latter the property of Mr. Wedgewood, to whose family the Staffordshire potteries are much indebted. The annual value of this manufacture is £2,000,000; the persons employed in it about 40,000. Nearly 40,000 tons of shipping are employed in conveying the materials for it to Liverpool, and about 30,000 in exporting or conveying coastwise the finished articles. Superior porcelain is also made at Worcester, Derby, Colebrook-dale, in Shropshire, and Swansea.

Paper, which was once largely imported, is now a valuable export, and principally manu

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