SEPTEMBER 361 



can deal with as much as twenty acres of land a day, working it 

 first from end to end and then across, at a cost of about ten 

 shillings per acre cultivated. 



In this county the stacks are infinitely better built than those 

 of my neighbourhood, being constructed much broader in the base 

 and lower, which gives them a superior appearance and more 

 stability. I do not know, however, whether this plan of erecting 

 very thick stacks answers well when the corn is carried in a damp 

 season, as the air can hardly penetrate so far to dry the sheaves. 



The farming in these parts is chiefly of cereal crops, but I 

 imagine that agriculturists here owe such prosperity as they 

 possess to the nearness of the London market. Many of them 

 keep large herds of cows and send up the milk by train ; also they 

 supply hay and straw in great quantities to the liverymen, buying 

 back manure from the London stables to fertilise the land. Some 

 of these farmers have migrated from Cornwall, where rent is very 

 high as much as three or four pounds the acre, I am told to this 

 district, which, being for the most part heavy corn land, commands 

 only from fifteen shillings to a pound an acre. I understand that 

 at these prices energetic men are doing well. Labour here, 

 however, seems to be growing scarcer every day, and without 

 labour what is to become of the land ? 



September 30. To-day is cold and drizzly but there is no real 

 rain. The method adopted to deepen the well here is one of great 

 ingenuity. At the bottom of the pit, eighty or ninety feet down, 

 stands a man, while at the top are several other men with a wind- 

 lass. The deepening instrument is a steel chisel or cutter weigh- 

 ing about thirty pounds. The windlass is wound up for a certain 

 distance, lifting the chisel. Then the rope is let run, and away it 

 falls, cutting its way into the chalk and smashing any flints with 

 which it may come in contact. When it has loosened the sub- 

 stances to a certain depth it is withdrawn, and a valved tube is 

 dropped down in its place, which retains the chalk sludge that 

 flows into it by a simple but effective action of the valve. Then 



