196 Wealden Clay of Sussex. 



making, it is a poor substitute for flint, and is soon ground to 

 powder where there is much traffic. 



No man, unless he be wilfully blind, can avoid seeing how 

 imperfect all agricultural practice is, even at the best, and how 

 much that is important still remains to be discovered. Tliero 

 are very good farmers in the Weald, but they are not the ma- 

 jority ; and, lookin<j^ at things fairly, it is evident that on the 

 undrained and shaded lands of the Weald, a tenant farmer, who 

 lias perhaps no passable road to market, but only a clay lane 

 through v/hich horse and man can hardly travel for many weeks 

 in the year, must go on summer fallowing for wheat, must be 

 content with few or no green crops, and can keep but very 

 little live stock. 



The ploughs used in this part of the country are generally very 

 heavy and clumsy, causing a great loss of power. Three, four, 

 and even more horses are worked at length, while a man holds 

 the plough and a stout lad drives the horses. In whole counties 

 four- horse ploughs have given way to lighter and better imple- 

 ments drawn by a pair of horses abreast ; this is especially the 

 case in the northern counties of England, and all over Scotland. 

 My own experience of nine years convinces me that, except on 

 some undrained lands, or after long-continued wet weather, a pair 

 of (jood horses icill ploufjli the stiffest Wealden clay, each ploughman 

 driving his own horses, and ploughing an acre in eight hours. 



Mr. Caird, in his ' English Agriculture,' after describing the 

 two-crop and fallow system of the clays of Durham, proceeds 

 thus ; — " No root-crops are cultivated, and no purchased manure 

 or food made use of. The farms are small in extent, the farmers 

 hard-working and industrious, but without means, and strongly 

 prejudiced in favour of their old ways, though these have yielded 

 them nothing l)ut ill-requited toil. They keep very little stock, 

 which being ill-fed, the manure made on the farm is merely 

 rotted straw. The yield of their wheat crop may be from 12 to 

 20 bushels an acre, 15 being a full average for the undrained 

 lands, and their oats from 20 to 30 bushels." 



It is singular that so striking a resemblance should exist be- 

 tween two counties separated as Durham and Sussex are, by the 

 whole length of the island, but it must be observed that the 

 resemblance is confined to the clay districts only of each county. 



More has been done in Great Britain in improving live stock 

 by selection and feeding than in any other country, and such men 

 as Bakewell and Collins have added millions to the wealth of 

 the country. But much yet remains to be done, and the breeders 

 of inferior stock would benefit tliemselves and the public could 

 they bat assimilate their management to that of our best stock 



