4.82 Farmincj of Wancicksldre. 



increases to one-half — the farms averaging about 200 acres. It is 

 remarkable that some of the grass-land in this district is pecu- 

 liarly liable to scour (" fret ") the young cattle. This is more espe- 

 cially the case where the limestone-rock is covered 15 or 20 feet 

 with clay, and as the rock becomes shallower the evil decreases. 

 It occurs on a strip running by Southam and Kineton, and is so 

 injurious in its effects, that some of the farmers cannot even keep 

 a cow on their farms, and are obliged to purchase milk for home 

 consumption ; yet the same land will fatten freely horses and 

 sheep. Those who persevere with grazing under these disad- 

 vantages are compelled to see the thriving of their cattle checked 

 by fretting, which is sure to attack them, although not at any 

 particular period.* Black cattle have been observed to turn on, 

 this land to a dun colour. In the absence of any known remedy, 

 either applied to the land or to the animals themselves, there is 

 no doubt that much of the grass land should be brought under 

 arable cultivation. t 



The great drawback in the district is the small amount of root- 

 crops grown, even on the soils suited to them. Those who grow 

 none at all have three or four times more sheep in summer on 

 their pastures than they can keep in winter, and they are often 

 obliged to put out part of their flock to those who grow roots. 



Lime is much used on the fallows, and, mixed with road- 

 scrapings and soil from ditches and banks, is applied to the 

 pastures. A few pigs are fattened. In former times, when several 

 labourers were boarded in the farm-houses, seven or eight hogs 

 would be consumed by the household ; but now this custom has 

 disappeared, and fattening seems to have fallen off. It is preferred 

 to drill all crops on a stale furrow — the staler the better ; oats are 

 but little grown. The average wheat-crop is stated at eight bags 

 (three bushels each) per acre. 



The Red Marls. — The south-western corner of the county, 

 between Henley, Alcester, Bidford, and Snitterfield, consists of 

 a reddish soil, which we may describe as a loam on marl, a loam 

 on clay, and a loam on gravel — the latter bearing turnips which 

 may be fed off, the former requiring draining. The farms vary 



* This is the general remark, but at Chadshunt, on a farm of 1300 acres, cattle 

 do well up to .luly ; they are then removed to other pastures, and may be turned 

 on again without injuiy in September. Forty-five acres on this farm have been 

 broken up and drained ; first-rate crops of wheat and beans are the result. 



f This is a matter of complaint well known, and fully meriting investigation 

 both by the chemist and the botanist ; and, indeed, by the geologist, inasmuch as 

 the belt of land upon which it occurs seems to lie at the junction of the lower lias 

 bed and the upper red marl of the red sandstone. The old-fashioned precaution, 

 upon such morbific pastures, of turning iu a fiock of geese for two or three days 

 before tlie cattle are admitted would, if really corrective of the evil, as^ it is said 

 to be, seem to point to some botanical peculiarity in the herbage, which mighty 

 with care, be discovered. — C. W. H. 



