318 Farming of Leicester si lire. 



every farm a small number, chiefly as adjuncts to the cows, are 

 kept ; usually a breeding- flock. In some instances the ewes are 

 bought annually and put to the ram in September. During the 

 winter they have the run of the dairy pastures, a little hay being 

 given in the case of a fall of snow. The most forward of the 

 lambs are sold fat, and the remainder as stores ; the ewes also 

 being fattened and sold towards the autumn. 



Others maintain a permanent flock, selling the wether, and 

 keeping the ewe lambs to fill up vacancies. Sometimes the 

 practice is varied by wintering the lambs, and selling fat as 

 shearlings in the September and October following;. On farms 

 where the lambs are sold fat, about 30 ewes to 25 cows is the 

 number kept. 



The 80 acres of land on the above farm are cropped on a five- 

 course rotation, viz., roots, barley, seeds, oats, wheat. The soil 

 being' very strong, 6 horses are required. The swedes and man- 

 gold are sown on the ridge, and white turnips drilled on the flat ; 

 for the former the dressing being farmyard and also artificial 

 manure, for the latter one or the other, but seldom both. 



The grain crops are all drilled, and either horse or hand hoed. 



The reaping-machine is used, and found of much service, 

 economising both time and money. 



The oat stubble is broadshared immediately after harvest, and 

 lime at the rate of 2 tons per acre applied and ploughed in for 

 the succeeding crop of wheat. 



The clover is mown for hay, as are also some watered meadows ; 

 the latter have been annually mown for the last 50 years without 

 any appreciable deterioration, the only restorative applied being 

 the water, which is turned on in November, or sometimes later, if 

 at that time the grass is not eaten close down. 



In this and various other districts of the county there is a con- 

 siderable extent of water-meadow, but they present nothing new 

 or peculiar in their management. 



In spring the dung of the animals depastured during the 

 summer and winter is knocked about, but the collection of the 

 fresh dung from the pastures, as noticed in Division I., is rarely 

 jiractised. 



On some of the large farms in this Division the management 

 will bear comparison with that of the best cultivated districts in 

 any part of the country ; the tenants being men of capital, who, 

 although a lease for a term is quite the exception, in many in- 

 stances invest that capital freely in the soil. I may instance Mr. 

 Breedon Everard, who seven years ago left a 300 acre farm of 

 Lord Stamford's, at Groby, when his stock, crop, and claims for 

 tenant-right realised over 7000/. That his management was 

 above par, we may safely infer from the fact that Mr. Packe's 



