16 Agriculture of Shropsldre. 



for store stock in the winter months, it is better to purchase 

 linseed cake or some other artificial food to give with the straw. 

 Mj own experience and observation are clearly in favour of using- 

 such food for store stock, and I believe more profit is made from 

 using it with store stock than for fatting cattle. This of course 

 presumes that the farmer keej)s his stock on an improving 

 system, and not, as is too frequently the case, alternately on 

 good and bad keep, losing under the latter that which had been 

 gained under the former. 



I'Vkeat. — This is the chief corn crop of this district, and has 

 given its name to it for many years past. In lact, from 20 to 

 30 years back wheat was almost the only produce sold in the 

 market. It was an old saying of that time, that " the pigs eat 

 all the peas, the men eat all the pigs, the horses eat all the oats, 

 and there was only wheat left to be sold." In more recent times 

 the spirit of enterprise has found its way here, and a better 

 system of tillage has resulted, whereby a considerable quantity 

 of spring corn and meat finds its way to market as well as wheat. 

 It was then the principal product of the land, and so it is at the 

 present time. It is sometimes sown upon tlie clover ley, but not 

 often. Nearly all is sown upon fallows, or after a fallow crop 

 removed or consumed early. 



The varieties commonly sown are the old red Lammas, Bristol 

 red, Devonshire red, and Spalding wheat, and they are preferred 

 in the order in which they are named. The seed is generally 

 sown broadcast on the fallows, at the rate of 2^ bushels per acre, 

 but on clover leys and pea stubble it is drilled, and then two 

 bushels are sown to the acre. The season commences about the 

 1st of October, and they endeavour to finish before the month is 

 ended, but the farmers of this sort of land cannot always do as 

 they would. Many dress their wheat with lime, others with blue 

 vitriol, or else with " farmers' friend." I have known it damped 

 and dried again with guano, but this is generally done wlien sown 

 rather late ; great care is taken to keep the horses in the furrows 

 between the lands, so as to avoid treading the land sown, and 

 when the sowing is complete the water-furrows are opened out 

 with an unusual degree of care. This is done to give free exit 

 for surface drainage, and to prevent the water being ponded 

 back, to the injury of the wheat plant in the winter months. 

 The wheat-fields, when finished, generally present a neat and 

 workmanlike appearance. 



The crops cannot be said to average above 22 or 24 bushels per 

 acre, and although 30 or 32 bushels luay sometimes be met with, 

 it is by no means frequent. The use of a top-dressing of guano 

 and salt, intermixed with a little mould to give it bulk, is 

 decidedly a good plan for assisting the crop; but under any cir- 



