The Agriculture of Worcestershire. 447 



— Mr. Watkins, Ombersley, near Droitwich ; Mr. Harris, Stony 

 Lane, near Bromsgrove ; Mr. Randell, Chadbury, near Evesham ; 

 Mr. W. Willetts, Bisliampton, near Pershore ; Mr. Partington, 

 Rouse Lench ; Mr. John Dale, steward to R, Berkley, Esq., 

 near Spetchley ; Mr. Walker, of Malvern, with a few others. 

 The high prices of wool and mutton, of late years, have given a 

 great impetus to the breeding of sheep, and most valuable stock 

 they are when at nine months old they can be made to realise 



The scarcity of keep during the winter of 1864 and 1865, 

 consequent on the dry summers, led to great improvements in 

 the management of sheep both in winter and summer ; an 

 admixture of straw-chaff and corn with turnips, 80 or 90 per cent, 

 of 'which is water, made the keep go farther, and did away 

 with the waste of food expended in raising the cold water of the 

 turnips to the heat of the body. Much more might be done in 

 keeping sheep on the clay farms of this county by consuming 

 the roots on the meadow-land, folding the sheep upon it in the 

 same way as the light-land farmer would on his arable land, 

 giving them a fresh pen every day ; and if roots are planted 

 early and got off the land in September, a large breadth may be 

 grown. The only objection is that it is robbing the arable 

 land, but this will right itself by the increased crops of hay pro- 

 duced, which will swell the manure heap in return. 



Mr. Crowther, of the Hoo Farm, near Kidderminster, has paid 

 great attention to the management of sheep. He farms 600 or 

 700 acres of land, nearly all arable, and keeps a large number of 

 sheep ; to these he gives food in pens, winter and summer, 

 cutting the turnips in the winter and penning the sheep on the 

 rye, clover, and rje-grass in the summer. This system he finds 

 answer better than the old plan, in fact he follows out the Wilt- 

 shire system of folding sheep. 



A gentleman near Stourport also informs me that he grows (in 

 addition to a large quantity of roots for winter consumption) 

 400 to 500 tons of mangolds, storing them in long trenches 

 about 2 feet deep in the ground and 12 feet wide, heaping them 

 to a ridge and covering with a very thick thatch. These are 

 generally thrown uncut to the sheep on the grass lands and seeds 

 from April to July. 



He further remarks, " I am always condemning Italian rye- 

 grass, and always planting it." He plants red clover only every 

 eighth year, when he generally gets a fair crop. 



Horses. 



During the last ten or fifteen years great improvement has 

 been effected in the farm horses ; on the whole they were quite 



