32 THE DORSET DOWNS 



grass. Like all the Down sheep they travel to and from 

 the fold every day; we saw them on a great stretch 

 of upland, not true down because it had been, sown 

 to grass by the present occupier, but typical enough 

 of the chalk country in its gentle curves and in the 

 huge tumulus that crowned it. In the heart of this 

 were exposed a number of large blocks of Sarsen stone, 

 many marked with fire ; unfortunately the mound was 

 built up of nicely friable chalk which formed a con- 

 venient medium for mixing with the artificial manures 

 before sowing, and so was steadily being dug away. 



All the farms thereabouts ran large ; our host's was 

 as much as 1400 acres, but three to eight hundred 

 acres were usual. Rents averaged about 155. per acre 

 for the good arable land down to half that price for 

 the down land, and despite the capital required to 

 take up such farms none were to be obtained. Small 

 holdings were little known, some of old standing in 

 the district had been put together again in the not 

 very distant past. A little farther on our way we saw 

 a farm which had been recently acquired and divided 

 by the County Council, but the experiment was too 

 new to judge of its promise. In this district labour 

 was reported as cheap and plentiful, the only difficulty 

 was to get the young man to take up the skilled occu- 

 pations, notwithstanding the higher wages available. 

 The sheep-shearers work in bands by contract, going 

 from farm to farm, but the local company was reduced 

 to five men, and shearing by machine with the ordinary 

 labourers would have to come. On the whole, the 

 impression we formed both here and elsewhere in 

 South Dorset was that its farming was of a very sound 

 and conservative type, quietly prosperous, and pre- 

 serving a good deal of the pride of the old school in 

 the thoroughness of the work done on the land. 



