d to its natural productions for much of its celebrity, yet we must principally attribute the proud station which it now occupies as a seat of commerce and manufactures, to the energetic exertions and enterprising spirit of its population. The state of agriculture in this county, is, on the whole, above the average in advancement. "Of the usual rotation of crops," says a recent writer, "the 'four course system' of husbandry is generally followed on the friable soils on the northern side of Teesdale, though on many farms of this description a large proportion of the green crop division is managed with bare fallow. The stiff and undrained lands are managed on the two crop and fallow system,' which is of two kinds, either simply (1) fallow, (2) wheat, (3) oats, or of that and the following combined; (1) fallow, (2) wheat, (3) clover. These combined give (1) fallow, (2) wheat, (3) oats, (4) fallow, (5) wheat, (6) clover. The land intended for fallow is seldom ploughed before February; and after receiving the usual repeated ploughings and harrowing during summer, is commonly limed, and then ridged up in ten feet mounds, well gathered and rounded to carry off the water. On this the wheat is sown broadcast in autumn, and receives no further attention till harvest. During next autumn and winter the manure from the farm yard is spread over it and ploughed in. In spring the land so prepared is sown with oats. The oat stubble lies till February, when it is ploughed, and the same routine of bare fallowing is pursued during the summer. The wheat crop this time receives no manure, and in spring clover seeds are sown with it, which next year are mown for hay. The clover root is broken up in February, again to undergo a bare fallow. No roots are cultivated, and no purchased manure or food made use of. The farms are small in extent, the farmers hard working and industrious. The yield of their wheat crop may be from twelve to twenty bushels an acrefifteen being an average for the undrained lands; and their oats from twenty to thirty bushels. The 'three course system' is the one usually practised by the clayland farmers of the county, viz:-(1) fallow, (2) wheat, (3) one half oats and one half clover. Nearly the whole of the fallow is managed as a bare fallow, there being very little green crop cultivated. Occasionally this rotation is prolonged by pasturing the clover a second year. Three cows and six young cattle to 100 acres may be about an average stock for the clay farms. To meet rent and the expenses of cultivation, the farmer's sole dependance is on his wheat crop, a little also being received from that portion of the hay-crop which he sells off the farm. As a general rule, no manure, except lime, is purchased; which is laid upon the bare fallow in preparation for wheat. The system is very exhausting; a bare fallow, stimulated by lime, is sown with wheat, which is followed by oats or hay. Each return of this rotation further reduces the soluble properties of the soil, as these are not restored by the small quantity of inferior manure applied in nearly the same proportion in which they are abstracted. The same farm, which thirty years ago averaged from twenty to twenty-four bushels of wheat, and thirty to thirty-six bushels of oats per acre, is now, under this process, reduced to fourteen bushels of wheat and eighteen to twenty bushels of oats. The four course system' is the ordinary system on Lord Ravensworth's estate, which extends some miles westward from Newcastle, on the south bank of the Tyne. The land is generally of a superior quality; and is drained by the landlord at a charge of five per cent to his tenants. The farms vary in extent from 50 to 200 acres; they are held from year to year, but the same families have held their farms for generations. The demand for milk in this neighbourhood is considerable; and the other articles of farm produce, such as potatoes, &c., are equally in demand, and at remunerative prices. On Lord Durham's estates attempts have been made to introduce the Northumberland, or 'five course system,' but without any great success. The farms average 200 acres in extent. During the last ten years, upwards of £14,000 have been expended in drainage by the landlord, the tenants being charged five per cent on the outlay." To its mining industry Durham is chiefly indebted for the high rank which it holds amongst the English counties, the benefit derived being estimated, not according to the direct marketable value of the minerals, but by their influence in developing the manufacturing power of the country. With regard to the coal trade, it can scarcely be necessary for us to point out to the reader its vast importance. Deprive us of our coal and where would be our manufactures? No longer should we, by our commerce, convey the conjoined benefits of knowledge and civilisation to the remote regions of the earth. No longer should we triumph over time and space, no longer traverse the land with a rapidity which has exceeded all anticipation, nor the ocean with a swiftness and certainty which brings the far east within the voyage of a few days. The period at which coal was first wrought in the north is not known with any degree of certainty, but we find it first noticed in record by the charter of Henry III., in 1245, which granted permission to mine it. It seems to have been known in the fourteenth century, not only in London, but also in France, though it did not become an article of commerce till the latter part of the sixteenth century. About the commencement of the following century, the French are represented as trading to the northern counties of England for coal, in fleets of fifty sail at a time, serving the ports of Picardy, Normandy, Bretagne, &c., even so far south as Rochelle and Bordeaux; while other fleets sailing to the ports of Bremen, Holland, and Zealand, supplied the inhabitants of the Low Countries. In the reign of Charles I., there was a great demand for coal for the metropolis, and we find from the report of the Trinity House, Newcastle, that the Tyne exports for 1703 amounted to 48,000 Newcastle chaldrons. At the commencement of the eighteenth century the principal seats of the Durham coal trade were the mines of Pontop, Marley Hill, Fairfield Moor, Garesfield, Gibside, Axwell, Blaydon Maiu, and Stella Grand Lease, all of which shipped their produce above Newcastle bridge. The collieries which shipped below the bridge were those of Heworth, Gateshead, Felling, and Tyne Main. The river Wear was principally supplied from the collieries of Lambton and Tempest estates. From this period the scene of mining operations has considerably changed; and by the discovery of coal beneath the magnesian limestone, the distant collieries of the Wear, &c. have been superseded by those nearer the place of shipment. From the year 1771, up to 1845, a regulation existed, with some partial interruptions, called the "limitation of the vends." This was a powerful combination of the whole of the principal coal proprietors, for the purpose of limiting the coal worked and sold by each concern respectively at their collieries, according to a basis fixed by a "committee of the coal trade." The result was to keep up a higher price for coals in the London market than could have been maintained if each colliery produced and sold as much as possible. The fixing of this scale or basis of the whole "Vend" was a point of the greatest delicacy, and the arbitrator was most jealously watched by his confederates, each being anxious to secure for his own concern as large a vend as possible. The proportion between the Tyne and the Wear used to be threefifths for the former and two-fifths for the latter river; but the opening out of new coal districts on the Wear and Tees, at first weakened, and at length destroyed, this regulation. The number of collieries actually at work in the county of Durham, and shipping their coals on the Tyne, the Wear, at Seaham, at Hartlepool, and on the Tees, frequently varies, but may be stated at the present time at upwards of one hundred. THE COLLIERIES. We purpose in this section to give a brief description of the collieries in the neighbourhood of the Tyne, which will serve, to a certain extent, for all the collieries of the north. What is meant by the "Tyne Collieries" is the whole group of collieries, whether lying north or south of the Tyne, which ship their coals in that river. There are about thirty of these collieries in Northumberland, on the northern side of the river-those in South Durham belong to the Wear or the Tees systems. It is curious to look at a map on which these collieries are laid down. The pits are dotted here and there on both sides of the river, being more and more thickly congregated as they approach nearer to its banks. These pits are about a hundred in number, two or more in some cases belonging to the same colliery. Not less curious is it to trace the lines which mark the "ways," one of the most characteristic features in the coal districts. As the river Tyne is the great outlet for nearly all the coal derived from the Tyne collieries, notwithstanding the spread of the railway system, some means must be adopted for reaching the river; but how is this to be effected? The colliery may be six or eight miles distant, and the surface ground may belong to other parties. Long before passenger railways was heard of, railways, or tramways, were laid down to facilitate the carriage of coals in trucks from the pits to the river, and we find these tramways following the best route which lies open to them. Now, it is obvious that some arrangement must be made with the landed proprietors in these matters, and, in truth, these arrangements are often a grave question to the coal owners. Although the expense of the mining operations is so great -although the establishment of a first-rate colliery, with its machinery, horses, waggons, &c. amounts to a sum varying from £40,000 to £150,000although the capital employed by the Tyne coal owners is so large, yet the "way leaves," or way rents," are an additional feature beyond all these, without which not a ton of coal can be brought to market. The character of the pitmen, the nature of their labour, the relations between them and their employers-all are dependent, more or less, on the mode in which the coal is distributed under the surface of the ground. To these deep-lying coals, therefore, we must ask the reader to pay an imaginary visit. " First, then, how to descend. We see a verticle hole, or pit, pitchy dark, and surmounted by wheels to facilitate the raising of coal from the bottom of the shaft. Into one of the tubs," or "bückets," used for this purpose, we must now contrive to get, a matter which requires no small amount of nerve to effect. If the bottom of the bucket should give way, or the rope break, or-but it is fearful to speculate on such ifs, when you are swinging over a depth of several hundred feet. Now we are descending. It is said by those who ascend in balloons, that no feeling of motion is perceptible, but that the earth seems to be flying away from them, while they are perfectly still and motionless. Much the same idea may be said, in reverse, in descending a coal shaft. You have no idea of the descent, but the little round hole of light seems to be flying faster and faster over your head upwards, as if it were going to the skies, and at length, in a couple of minutes, perhaps the orifice of the shaft has apparently turned itself into a day-star, which shines far, far above you in the firmament. Arrived at the bottom of the pit, what do we see? Nothing, or nothingbut "darkness made visible." Every vestige of daylight is effectually shut out, and it requires some time to accustom one's eyes to the light of the candles, which appear as mere sparks or points of light in the midst of intense darkness. By degrees, however, our eyes become accustomed to the strange scene, and men are discerned moving about in galleries, or long passages, working in positions which would break the back of any ordinary workman, while boys and horses are seen to be engaged in bringing the coal to the mouth of the pit. Some of these horses go through the whole of their career without seeing the light of day - they are born in the pit, reared in the pit, and die in the pit. A coal mine, as we perceive, is not simply a pit with coals at the bottom of it. The shaft is merely an entrance, from the bottom of which passages radiate to a great distance. These passages are cut in the coal "seam," and are a natural result of the manner in which the coal is worked. If the whole of a coal seam were to be excavated at once, the cavity left would be so large that the earthen roof would fall for want of support, hence it is requisite to leave portions called pillars," to support the superincumbent weight; and the self-interest of the coal owner leads him to limit the size of these pillars as much as is consistent with safety. Passages lead between and around these pillars, and iron tramways are laid along the passages, to facilitate the removal of the buckets of coal from the workings to the upright shaft. The Working and Management, Discipline and Duties, of a Coal Mine.The persons engaged in a colliery are sub-divided into a greater number of classes than might, perhaps, be supposed, and, generally speaking, the technical designations of these classes are more significant than is usually observable in other industrial occupations, but some of these sound strangely enough to the ears of the uninitiated. They are distinguished into the two groups of "under-ground," and "upper-ground" establishments, the former engaged in the pit, and the latter in conducting the open air arrangements. The chief of them are occupied in a way which may be illustrated in the following connected view. The actual coal digger is called the hewer. Whether the seam be so narrow that he can hardly creep into it on his hands and knees, or whether it be lofty enough for him to stand upright in, he is the responsible workman who loosens the coal from its bed; all the arrangements below ground are made to suit him; he is indeed the key of the pit, the centre of the mining system. The hewers are like the cabinet council of the country, governing and directing and working for the whole pit population besides. Next to them come the putters, who are divided into trams, headsmen, foals, and half-marrows. These are all youths or children, and their employment consists in dragging or pushing the coals from the workings to the passages where horses are capable of being employed in the work. The distance that a corve, or basket of coal, is dragged in this manner, averages about a hundred and fifty yards. When a boy "puts" or drags a load by himself he is designated a tram, when two boys of unequal age and strength assist each other, the elder is called a headsman and the younger a foal, and when two boys of equal age and strength help each other, both styled half-marrows. When the corves are "put" to a particular place, where a crane is fixed, the crane-man manages the crane by which the corves are transferred from the tramway to the rolleys, and keeps an account of the number so transferred. The corf is a wicker work basket, containing from four to seven hundred weights, the rolley are تمام : The is a waggon for transporting the corves from the crane to the shaft, and the Without troubling the reader with any extended or scientific details, the following observations will give him some notions of ventilating and lighting a coal-mine. The seams of coal, and the apertures where such seams have been, often give out carburetted hydrogen and other gases, which, when mixed with common air, become very explosive. Hence it is important to drive these gases out of the mine as quickly as possible, and this can only be effected by causing a current of air to pass constantly through the workings. A complete system, as now adopted at the best collieries, comprises the downcast-shaft for the descent of fresh air, the upcast-shaft for the ascent of the vitiated air, well-planned galleries, doors, and valves, throughout the whole of the mine, and a furnace at the bottom of the upcastshaft to heat the air, and cause it to ascend more rapidly. In some collieries the air is made to traverse an extent of thirty miles of galleries and passages. In former times the dangerous contaminated passages were lighted only by sparks struck from a small instrument called a "steel-mill," but the beautiful safety lamp, or "Davy," as the miners familiarly call it, has superseded this. In this lamp the flame is surrounded by a wire gauze, having very fine meshes, through which the air must pass to feed it, and, if the air be inflammable, the flame is confined within the gauze envelope, for the iron wire cools the gas too much to permit the flame to exist on the outside of the gauze. If the lamp be properly tended, it is one of the most precious boons that science ever gave to industry; if it be neglected, as it often is by the miners, those explosions take place which so frequently give rise to such fearful results. A good plan of the works, with adequate ventilating power, will not ensure safety in a colliery, unless there be a vigilant administration of all the mining affairs, united with due subordination, constant inspection, and effective discipline. It is not too much to say, that the daily work of a colliery should be conducted on the supposition that danger is always to be looked for, and always to be provided against. The great mines in the north may be said to be established upon a system of effective and excellent discipline, which has been arrived at by degrees, and has been much improved within a comparatively recent period. Few collieries are now found without regular maps, which are on a large scale, and show the extent as well as the progress of the workings, the courses of the air, and the lines of dislocation in the strata, sections of which are generally formed, and sometimes adorn the office walls, while large drawings of furnaces, shafts, engineering arrangements, &c. are now frequently under keeping of the managers of the collieries. The actual condition of the mine may at any minute be known to the resident viewer or the consulting viewer-the former of whom is supposed to be, and very generally is personally acquainted with all the workmen. A practice is now becoming general of making the most eminent viewers in the district consulting viewers, and, therefore, the highest authority of two or three principal or lesser mines, which they visit periodically. The general charge of the mining operations is delegated to the under viewer, who is expected to examine the mine daily, and in addition to his own personal |