INTRODUCTION. 5 
smaller places engaged in the salt trade, and Crewe 
(pop. 29,000), there are no towns of any size in the 
central portion of the Cheshire Plain; the manu- 
facturing towns of Stockport (pop. 70,000), Macclesfield 
(pop. 36,000), and Congleton (pop. 11,000), being situate 
on its eastern border, whilst Chester (pop. 37,000) and 
Runcorn (pop. 20,000) are in the extreme west. Along 
the northern border of the Plain the country is rapidly 
losing much of its charm owing to the extension of the 
southern suburbs of Manchester, and here the require- 
ments of a residential district, rather than the proximity 
of factories, are yearly curtailing the haunts of many 
birds. It must, however, be borne in mind that the 
plantations, shrubberies, and extensive gardens, as well 
as the ground devoted to the cultivation of market 
produce in these suburban districts, have undoubtedly 
contributed, directly and indirectly, to the increase of 
others. Owing to the growth of the manufacturing 
towns and the residential suburbs of Manchester, the 
population of Cheshire has quadrupled during the 
present century, but the greater part of the county, 
and the Plain in particular, is still essentially agri- 
cultural. Dairy-farming, for which the nature of the 
soil and the humid climate are well suited, is carried 
on here to a greater extent than anywhere else in 
Britain. According to the returns of the Board of 
Agriculture for 1897, there were in that year in 
Cheshire 103,325 milch cattle, a number higher by 
fifty per cent. per thousand acres than in any other 
county. Dairy-farming necessarily implies extensive 
grazing ground, and in 1897 there were in the whole 
county 338,863 acres under permanent pasture, whilst 
wheat was grown only on 13,533 and oats on 61,940 
acres, the land under other cereals being inconsiderable. 
