connected with Mines. 435 



There is almost always a bailiff or farm-manager; but as he has 

 to work to instructions from one who knows comparatively little 

 of the management of land, and who considers it a secondary 

 matter with which to occupy his time and attention, things are 

 often gone about in the wrong way. The bailiff's general instruc- 

 tions are often to the following effect : " You must get on with 

 the farm-work as well as you can ; but you must in the first place 

 attend to the wants of the pits — they must be kept going." The 

 horses above bank are often kept for the double purpose of work- 

 ing the land and doing the work required about the mines, and 

 in the case of breakage of machinery and other emergencies they 

 are taken off the farm, and the work must wait for a more conve- 

 nient season ; but as there is also a proper season for every crop, 

 the golden opportunity is often lost, and poor crops and poor 

 returns are the result. Farming will as little bear to be treated 

 as secondary in importance, or to be put under secondary 

 management, as any trade or calling. 



One of the designs of this essay is to suggest " improved farm- 

 management, so as to meet the peculiar wants of men and animals 

 connected with the mines." In my opinion one of the principal 

 causes why farming in connection with mines fails to be profitable, 

 is that it partakes too much of the class system ; that is to say, 

 one object is too much kept in view, and the others deemed 

 secondary or altogether lost sight of. That object in many 

 instances is to provide as large a supply as possible of food for 

 the numerous horses required above and below ground ; the con- 

 sequence is that the old grass land, as well as the seeds or arti- 

 ficial grass, are generally cut for hay year after year, and as in 

 many instances few or no sheep and cattle are kept, the only 

 manure that the old grass land gets is a slight dressing of either 

 horse-manure or coal-ashes, so that the herbage grows poor in 

 quality and gradually less in quantity. The other crops are often 

 similarly treated, and give the same poor result. Summer fal- 

 lowing is too much practised in a mining neighbourhood, and 

 on some farms in connection with mines. The value of turnips 

 as the cleaning crop in the rotation, and in a manner the sheet- 

 anchor of all the others, is not appreciated, as roots are not 

 absolutely required on a farm specially kept for the necessities 

 of mines. 



I would, therefore, suggest at the outset that a proportion of 

 sheep and cattle should be kept and root-crops grown. Our 

 modern system of husbandry, as practised on the most generally 

 approved plan, will in the end be found to answer even the re- 

 quirements of mines better than close adherence to the attain- 

 ment of the immediate objects peculiar to this class of farms. 

 The objects for which the farms are kept will, no doubt, often 



