LARGE FARMS. 313 



and there a square clump of beech or fir trees, intended probably 

 as an occasional retreat for the sheep. More rarely a great 

 farm-house, with stacks and stables and great sheep-yards, al- 

 ways so sheltered about by steep slopes and trees, close planted 

 upon some artificially-elevated soil, that we came by chance and 

 unexpectedly in near proximity before we saw them. Occasion- 

 ally, even on the downs, and entirely unenclosed, there is culti- 

 vated land and very large breadths of some single crop, much of 

 good promise, too, but the wheat universally infested with char- 

 lock. 



But the valleys are finely cultivated, and the crops, especially 

 of sainfoin and lucerne, which is extensively grown here, very 

 heavy. , 



Sainfoin and lucerne are both forage crops, somewhat of the 

 character of clover. Sainfoin only succeeds well, I believe, on 

 chalky soils or where there is much lime, and has not been found 

 of value in the United States. Lucerne has been extensively 

 cultivated in some parts, but not generally with us. I have heard 

 of its doing well in a cold, bleak exposure upon the Massachu- 

 setts coast, but it should have a warm, rich soil, deeply cultivated, 

 and be started well clean of weeds, when it may be depended 

 upon to yield three to five heavy cuttings of green fodder, equal 

 in value to clover, or three to seven tons of hay, of the value of 

 which I am not well informed. 



The valley lands are sometimes miles wide, and cultivation is 

 extended often far up the hills. The farms are all very large, 

 often including a thousand acres of tillage land, and two, three or 

 four thousand of down. A farm of less than a thousand acres is 

 spoken of as small, and it often appears that one farmer, renting 

 all the land in the vicinity, gives employment to all the people 

 of a village. Whether it is owing to this (to me) most repugnant 

 state of things, or not, it is certainly just what I had expected to 



