Manuring Grass Lands. 207 



siderable improvement. The dairy stock on the farm the pre- 

 ceding year consisted of four cows, which had been increased 

 to eight. It is proper to mention here that the land in question 

 had been in grass for a long series of years, its wetness and 

 natural cohesiveness having been a bar to any attempt at con- 

 verting it to tillage. The extent of the farm in question is 98 

 acres. In 1842 the dairy stock on this farm was 24 cows, and 

 in the autumn of that year 80 sheep were put on the land to 

 consume the superabundant grass on the pastures. 



In November, 1843, I again inspected this farm. The weather 

 had been wet for some weeks, and I was sorry to see much 

 good herbage on the land almost lost for want of the surface- 

 water being properly carried off. Within the past two years I 

 have been three times over this farm ; it is still in a bad state 

 from want of efficient drainage, and the bones seem to have lost 

 much of their former effect. 



In 1844 I went over a farm of 137 acres, lying about 10 miles 

 west of that last-mentioned, and at nearly the same altitude. 

 About one-half of this is strong soil on clay, and the remainder 

 rather a light soil resting on red shale marl and soft red sand- 

 stone. Seventeen acres of this farm were very old meadow, 65 

 acres in pasture, and the remainder of the farm in convertible 

 husbandry. The then and present tenant had commenced his 

 occupancy in 1840, and in that year I made an inspection of the 

 land and stock. The dairy stock consisted of 24 cows and 3 farm- 

 horses : all the young stock had to be sent to a public pasture, 

 as the land would barely keep the cows and horses. In 1844 the 

 dairy cows were 30, farm-horses 4, heifers 11, with abundance of 

 keep for all. To effect this improvement the tenant had in three 

 years expended 300/. in bones, all applied to the 65 acres of 

 pasture land, which is now in a highly productive state. The 

 water was drained out of the strong and clayey soil ; this, with 

 the increased number of stock supported, seems to maintain a 

 continuously fertile condition. 



In a wide range of country around Crev/e, Nantwich, and 

 Church Minshull, extending to the city of Chester, the surface 

 is now maintaining from 30 to 50 per cent, more stock than was 

 the case thirty years ago ; and the increase of cheese, the staple 

 product of these districts, is in many instances in about the same 

 ratio. Bones were used to a spirited extent twenty-five years 

 since in the township of Minshull Vernon, and the effect shown 

 there has given rise to great efforts in the right direction in 

 several counties. I believe nearly the whole surface of the 

 township just mentioned has been covered with bone-dust: it 

 is a pastoral township, mostly devoted to dairying for cheese. 

 The soil is strong, resting on a clayey subsoil, bat neither the sur- 



