Farming of Warwickshire . 483 



from 150 to 200 acres, and many are still smaller. The fields 

 are in general small and crowded with timber. The grass land is 

 chiefly on the banks of the Arrow and the Alne, and a propor- 

 tion of three-fifths is arable. The comse of cropping is, 1st, 

 fallow ; 2nd, wheat ; 3rd, clover and rye-grass (often for two 

 years) ; 4th, wheat; 5th, beans, and sometimes Gth, wheat: Or, 

 1st, fallow ; 2nd, beans ; 3rd, wheat ; 4th, seeds ; 5th, wheat. Few 

 peas or oats are grown. Root crops are strangely neglected ; and 

 draining as little thought of as if pipes were not invented, or 

 stones were not to be had for the picking. In fact, this district, 

 with all its advantages of soil and situation, and with Birmingham 

 market close at hand, seems (with the exception perhaps of 

 Bidford) to have been overlooked in the general advance, and 

 is still pursuing the practices of 100 years ago. Twenty-four 

 to twenty-seven bushels of wheat, and the same quantity of beans, 

 per acre, are the average crops. Judging from what is done in 

 several instances which could be pointed out, the average pro- 

 duce of many of the farms might, with proper management, be 

 increased 50 per cent. 



The best farmers plough for beans before Christmas, and sow 

 the white-eye or water-bean in February ; but many do not touch 

 their stubbles until spring. Drilling is by no means common, 

 and at least one-half of the farmers sow and plough-in their 

 wheat. A good plan, only adopted by the better farmers, is to 

 plough-in dung in autumn, scutiie in spring, and drill barley on 

 a stale furrow. By this method a much better plant of clover 

 may be expected than by sowing it in wheat, as is commonly 

 done. 



Leicester sheep, often crossed with the Shropshire down, 

 are common, and on the gravelly soils, where turnips are grown, 

 are kept in the fold through the winter, or they are kept in yards 

 and run out into the meadows, and get a few turnips thrown 

 abroad, and straw given them in sheep-racks. In summer they 

 are grazed on the pastures without corn, and the store sheep run 

 on tlie stubble in autumn. In some cases, by draining, this land 

 has been made to bear treading ; and a few farmers are per- 

 severing enough to grow swedes and mangel on the heavy land, 

 and cart them off. 



Cows of the Short-horned, Hereford, or, more frequently, of a 

 cross-breed, are kept for choese-inaking and dairying. A first-rate 

 dairy will ])roduce, on an average, 9 or 10 lbs. of butter per cow 

 for each week during the summer months, or 500 1I)S. of cheese 

 per cow per annum. This is under higher feeding than common, 

 though some men boast of producing that amount without com : 

 300 lbs. of cheese per cow is an average produce. Each cow 

 gives about 1 lb. per week of " second butter," fetching 2d. per 



