Farming of Leicestershire. 301 



having straw-chafF, pulped roots, and a little cake in the yards, 

 and the third summer they are grazed on the best feeding land, 

 from which in autumn they are sold fat. 



As regards the other cattle bought for fattening, the same 

 system is pursued as that described on the grazing farms, viz., 

 they are sold fat from July to January. 



The number of sheep kept average about one and one-third 

 per acre the year round. A breeding flock of ewes are kept, 

 the breed being a strong variety of the Leicester put to Lin- 

 coln rams. The produce is sold fat at two-shear. During 

 the first winter the lambs are thinly stocked over the fattening 

 pastures, having daily a little cake or corn. The second summer 

 they are run thick on the store pastures, getting more field room 

 as winter approaches, when occasionally a few are put to roots 

 and fattened off; the remainder, having on the grass an allowance 

 of cake during the winter months, come out fat from JMay to 

 July. 



The ewes are annually drafted, and the culls fattened off on 

 turnips, or sold to the breeders of fat lambs. 



Three hundred acres of the farm have been drained, the landlord 

 providing the pipes and the tenant the labour. Much of this is 

 done 3 feet deep, but that done recently has averaged 4 feet ; the 

 system has been to keep to the furrows. 



During the present tenancy 100 acres have been sown down to 

 permanent pasture, the poorest of the arable land being selected 

 for this. That which was laid down about the beginning of the 

 tenancy experienced the well-known falling off after the second 

 year, but is now recovering, and, with help, promises to become 

 tolerable pasture. Some other, laid down more recently, has main- 

 tained its vigour, and is likely soon to become useful feeding land. 

 This difference is accounted for by the land being in a rich 

 fertile condition, after better management both as regards stock- 

 ing and manuring. The pastures generally have much improved, 

 chiefly by drainage, secondly by the consumption of large quanti- 

 ties of cake, &c., by the grazing cattle, and lastly, by the atten- 

 tion paid to management in grazing, by cutting hassocks, col- 

 lecting and knocking the dung, all of which are done well and in 

 due season. 



The hedges enclosing the arable fields are cut down low, and 

 annually neatly trimmed, and the land cultivated close up to 

 their roots, while the grass is divided by the huge ox fences 

 before referred to. The height of one on this farm was ascer- 

 tained by measurement to be 14 feet, and the tenant argues that 

 the value of the shelter afforded by them is incalculable. 



The farm-buildings are very indifferent, and though doubtless 

 in unison with those of the adjoining farms, are totally out of 



