o2 Agriculture of Shropshire. 



The surface is slightly undulating;, just sufficient to give 

 variety to the landscape. The Corve brook runs through the 

 Dale, and is joined by the Ony near Ludlow. The soil is chiefly 

 an alluvial deposit of good quality. Around Ludlovi^ this deposit 

 is 6 or 7 feet deep, and throughout the centre of the Dale, along 

 the course of the Corve, it maintains a depth varying from 2 to 

 8 feet. The more general depth is 3 or 4 feet. As we rise 

 towards the hills which bound the Dale it gradually decreases 

 in depth. It forms a loamy soil, occasionally becoming a stiff 

 loam, especially in the north portion of the Dale. We also find 

 drifts which are gravelly in their nature, as between Onibury and 

 Ludlow, but these are generally narrow portions of no great 

 extent. 



The tillage-land is nearly equal in extent to the grass-land, 

 and maintains throughout the district a considerable degree of 

 fertility, and is occupied by a wealthy and prosperous tenantry. 

 Its produce is very much checked by the peculiarity of the 

 climate, which, as I have already stated, is cold and uncongenial, 

 and subject to a succession of ichite frosts late in the spring, 

 Avhich are very unfavourable to vegetation ; hence the averages 

 are considerably below the amount which the land is in every 

 other respect calculated to produce. The course of cropping 

 differs in some degree according to the heaviness of the soil. 



On Dry Soik. 



Eoots. 



Spring corn or wheat. 



Seeds, one or two years, altev- 



nating with beans. 

 Wheat. 



On Heavier Soils. 

 Fallow or vctclies. 

 Wheat. 



Seeds or beans. 

 Wheat. 



Falloic. — Although this is occasionally practised on some of 

 the heaviest portions of the Dale, yet it is generally considered 

 unnecessary. A crop of vetches is much more frequently taken, 

 and thus the land gets a bastard fallow instead of a bare fallow. 



Vetches. — The land is broken up for this crop in tlie early 

 part of the winter, and exposed to the action of the wintry 

 ■weather. There is not, however, sufficient attention given to 

 the autumn cultivation, and valuable time is thus comparatively 

 lost on many farms. It is of the greatest importance that the 

 stubbles should be made as clean as possible before they are 

 ploughed deep for the winter. Tl)is is the time when the couch- 

 grass may he forked out v/ith the least trouble, and, as a rule, I 

 should have this done before the surface is broken. Often 

 the couch is broken or cut by the use of various implements, 

 thus increasing the difficulty of its removal, and encouraging its 

 growth very much, instead of checking it. Forking will, in 

 the majority of cases, be found the cheapest and most effectual 



