lis 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



through this chamijaign, bisecting the county. The 

 soil of the eastern side of Shropshire is mostly a sandy 

 loam, farmed on the four-course system, the occupier's 

 main dependence being on his sheep and his barley ; 

 breeding of horned cattle, and dairying are carried on to 

 some extent, particularly in the south and west : hops 

 are produced on the borders of Ilereford-ihire. There 

 are some large estates and tolerably extensive holdings 

 on the eastern side of the county, where the husbandry 

 is well carried on ; but on the borders of Wales the 

 farms arc very small, many not exceeding twenty acres. 

 The district of Clun Forest, in the south-west part of 

 the county, is divided into small freehold properties* 

 varying in value from £o to i'loO a-year, the majority 

 being of the smaller class. Their occupiers, who in 

 most cases are also the owners, employ few labourers, 

 the principal part of the work on their farms being exe- 

 cuted by themselves and their families. They are very 

 industrious, working along with their servants, while 

 their wives bal;e, brew, &c. One point that may very 

 well be investigated by the visitor to Shropshire is, the 

 enormous quantity of beer reported to be swallowed by 

 farm-labourers, not only in harvest or hay time, but all 

 through the year. 



In June, 1776, Young found " a line sandy soil for 

 two or three miles before ShifFnal. Course: 1st, 

 turnips, limed for, but not always hoed ; 2nd, barley, 

 five or six quarters ; 3rd, clover, mown and fed; 4th, 

 wheat, dunged for, yielding twenty to thirty bushels. 

 Some rye-grass. Rent, 15 shillings an acre." So that 

 the four-course system was very prevalent, and not con- 

 sidered at all an innovation, long before Mr. Coke in- 

 troduced it into Norfolk. " I found double-ploughs 

 here, as also near Birmingham ; they are very common, 

 and reckoned a great saving; the price £b 5s. com- 

 plete." " At Benthal," he says, " turnips are coming 

 ia among them ; they begin to hoe, ,but only a little. 

 Soot they use a little for wheat-crops in April, at Gd. 

 a-bushel. In weaning calves they have several methods 

 to make a little milk go a long way ; for instance, to a 

 pail of water they put a pint of linseed, which they boil, 

 so that when cold it shall be a jelly ; they then warm it 

 for use, and mix it with skim-milk half-and-half. They 

 also mi.x milk and water and pea-flour for the same pur- 

 pose. Cutting straw into chaff is much practised." 

 Near Shrewsbury, on a strong loam, " they plough with 

 horses four or five at length, and do an acre a day ; keep 

 eight horses to 100 acres of tillage. Break stubbles 

 after wheat-sowing. Swing-ploughs used, and the 

 CDulters fixed to the shares. Irrigation practised. Many 

 copses in the landlord's lands ; the young wood cut and 

 so! J to the collieries. Lime spread on peas when thne 

 or four inches high, to keep insects from them." At 

 Orton he found a farmyard managed on the best system 

 lie had anywhere seen. " In autumn the farmer carts 

 marl in, and spreads it ; upon this he confines his cittle, 

 giving them their fodder on it; and he has a well in the 

 lowest part for pumping up the drainings and scattering 

 them by troughs over the whole body of the compost." 

 Have any Shropshire farmers cause to be ashamed when 

 they read this record of sixty-two years vince ? 



Of its breed of sheep, a large and most valuable 

 variety of Downs, this county may justly be proud, 

 and wc have no doubt that visitors will profit by this 

 opportunity of acquainting themselves with the peculiar 

 merits and properties of these rapidly improving 

 animals. 



North Wales, embracing the counties of Montgomery, 

 Merioneth, Flint, Denbigh, Carnarvon, and the Isle of 

 Anglesea, is more renowned for its magnificent moun- 

 tain ?cenery, its slate, copper, lead, iron, coal, and 

 manganese works, its flannel, cotton, and other manu- 

 factures, than for its farming. Indeed, the arable land 

 is less than one-fifth of the whole acreage, and one- 

 fourth is in wood and waste. The largest extent of any 

 one kind of soil is on the coal-measures, or compara- 

 tively level tract, stretching south-west of Chester; 

 beyond this are the limestone hills of Flintshire, and the 

 Silurian mountains of Denbigh ; then the vale of Clwyd 

 lying on new red sand-stone, and proverbial for its fer- 

 tility. Most of Carnarvonshire is a district of moun- 

 tains, comprising the mighty Snowdon, and other lofty 

 peaks ; abounding in precipices, lakes, and passes ; 

 sheep-walks, and bogs on the elevated parts of the 

 region, and miniature valleys, with good soil, bordering 

 the streams — as near Carnarvon, Bangor, in Conway 

 vale, Festiniog, and other places ; and on the shores of 

 Cardigan Bay are sandy marshes, embanked from the 

 sea. In Anglesea are some marshy tracts, capable of 

 great improvement. Remote from good roads and 

 markets, Welsh husbandry is in a backward condition ; 

 sucli, in fact, as that of some of our best- managed 

 ounties was fifty years ago ; but railways and other 

 stirring influences are awakening the spirit of progress. 

 But the improvements must necessarily be of a rudi- 

 mentary character, in spots where the growth of grain 

 is impossible, and cattle have to be sent off to the 

 eastern farms on the approach of the Alpine winter. 

 The history of the agriculture is, first, solely grazing ; 

 next, a little tillage is combined with it ; and then 

 manures are economized and applied to the cereal crops 

 and meadows ; fUbsequent to which an advanced step is 

 taken by the introduction of green crops and alternate 

 husbandry. But turnips form, at present, a minor 

 part of the usual culture ; and owing mainly to the bad 

 practice of taking two, three, or four corn crops in 

 succession, and breaking up the lea again within two, 

 three, or four years of so exhausting a course, the de- 

 ficient average produce does not supply North Wales 

 with enough corn for its own consumption, large quan- 

 tities being imported from England and Ireland, to feed 

 only a scanty population. Sheep-farming upon the 

 mountiiins is the principal business of the occupiers ; and 

 of the qualities of the native sheep we shall have some- 

 thing to add in our report of the show. 



Cheshire is a comparatively level county ; about one 

 quarter, in the east and north-east, rising into lofty 

 hills. Rich red loams and strong tenacious soils pre- 

 vail ; and the pastures, sheltered by a profusion of 

 timber, and kept moist by the great rainfall, are some 

 of the most luxuriant grazing-lands in England. Those 

 of us propoiiog to devote a day or two ^o exploratioaa 



