ENCLOSURES : ESSEX AGRICULTURE, 1500-1900. 25
The decline of arable farming continued during the final
decade of the nineteenth century and persisted throughout
the period of strong foreign competition of the twentieth cen-
tury. In figure 6—the Land Utilisation Survey of Essex
carried out in 193324—is shown the present state of Agriculture
in Essex. The loamy Boulder Clay district of the north-west
is still predominantly a land of arable farming. This des-
cription also applies to the lighter sandy soil tracts of Chelms-
ford-Colchester, East Dengie, and the Rochford district. A
positive change in arable farming (i.e., an increase) had taken
place along the coastal marshland of the south-east of the
County. This increase of arable farming on the reclaimed,
fertile silt is a striking feature of the County and one easily
recognisable in the map (fig. 6).
The main stretch of the London Clay belt appears as a grass-
land region, but the effect of the superficial gravels in the
Thurstable Hundred, north of the Blackwater, is apparent in
the extensive areas of arable farming in that district.
In concluding this account of the Enclosures and Essex
agriculture since 1500 some explanation of the method of treat-
ment is necessary. The paper has included a long discussion
of early settlement and agricultural practices existing many
centuries ago, but it is held that this is necessitated by the fact
that these activities of earlier days have controlled the later
enclosures, and, indeed, form the only means of tracing their
progress, since documentary evidence of the time is slight.
The mediaeval agriculture has not only greatly influenced later
agriculture, but also left traces not entirely obliterated today.
Pintail Ducks at King George Reservoir, Chingford.—Mr.
W. A. Wright reports that on February 6, 1937, four Pintails were seen,
three being adult males. Altogether eight species of ducks were seen, viz.:
Mallard, Teal, Widgeon, Pintail, Pochard, Tufted, Goldeneye and
Goosander. Another notable visitor was a Red-necked Grebe, and a
Razorbill was found dead.
On February 13 five Pintails were seen, four being adult males. Ou
this occasion two Red-necked Grebes were seen. One was diving quite
near the bank, the average time for five dives was 23 seconds.-—Bernard
T. Ward.
24 Surveyed by the writer, Summer, 1933.