164 Mr. Philipps's Account of the Improvement of 



The expences, as appears by the subjoined Table, were £^88. 195. \d. The 

 wheat was worth, last month, /^igo. The balance in my favour is£'40. OJ. ixd. 

 £^. 25. ']d. an acre. This land, in its natural state, was not worth five shillings an 

 acre ; when it is laid down in grass it will be worth forty shillings an acre. 



In the beginning of October, 1805, ^^ stubble was harrowed off and conveyed 

 to the farm-yard. The land was then ploughed, sowed with twenty-four bushels of 

 wheat, and harrowed, as the year before. This is not my usual course of crops ; 

 but it was thought that old common land could not easily be exhausted ; and I 

 was tempted to take another crop of wheat by the high price of corn, and by the 

 circumstance of the land being for four years tithe free. The corn now, the 12th 

 of January, is coming up in abundance. 



It is my intention to lay down this lot with grass-seeds, to be sown with oats in 

 the spring of 1 807. Oats I conceive to be the best grain for the next crop, because 

 the land is not dry enough for turnips and barley. 



The second, and much larger, division of lands lying waste, extended along the 

 side and reached the summit of a hill, which is equal in height to any in the county. 

 The aspect is for the most part north and north-east. A mountain torrent runs 

 through the midst of this tract. Some of the lands on one side of this torrent are 

 more sheltered, and have a southern aspect. 



Lime-stone is found on the lowest part of this waste, not far from the bed of a 

 river ; but the steepness of the ground above would have been too formidable an 

 obstacle to the cultivation of the higher lands, had not lime-stone been discovered 

 upon a spot so elevated as to enable the improver to convey his manure, at a com- 

 paratively light expence, upon the lands below. 



The coals, indeed, for burning the lime, are brought up a steep hill a distance 

 of four miles. This enhances considerably the expence of the manure. 



Upon this waste the lime-stone is at the bottom of the hill, and fortunately also 

 at the top. The substratum at no great distance from the surface is sand-stone, in 

 some places hard, in others more rotten, and less useful for fencing ; a purpose to 

 which I have applied it in dividing most of the inclosures. 



Here let me premise, that all the waste lands allotted to mc as proprietor, or oc- 

 cupied by me as tenant, in consequence of the two leases mentioned above, were 

 covered, for the most part, with gorse, Ulex europams, in some parts of England 

 called furze. Some more favourable spots produced fern alone ; and others were 



