38 THE SUSSEX CORN BELT 



was indeed somewhat too heavy for sheep, and often 

 suffered badly from their treading in the winter, traces 

 of which could be seen here and there in some of 

 the oat crops. The sheep, too, are not exactly at 

 home on the lowlands, and are subject to foot-rot, 

 especially after a winter as wet as the previous one 

 had been. The lambs had just been weaned, and the 

 air was full of bleatings as we went to look at the folds, 

 where the neat, active brown-faced little sheep were 

 clearing off the last of the vetches. No sheep count 

 more devoted adherents than the Southdowns, and 

 though men accustomed to the larger breeds always 

 wonder how a farmer can be found to waste time 

 raising anything so small, both Southdown mutton 

 and wool command special prices of their own, and 

 the turn of the market has for many years been in the 

 direction of small mutton. On this farm it was the 

 custom to sell off the wether lambs and the draft ewes 

 in September, when they go inland, as for example to 

 the greensand country beyond the Downs and into 

 Surrey, to be fattened on the turnips. A few dairy 

 cows are kept, especially near Chichester, but the chief 

 cattle business is the fattening of bullocks, mostly 

 Devons raised in the West Country, so much so that 

 Chichester has become a well-recognized market for 

 young Devon stock. Generally they are wanted to 

 trample down the straw and are yard -fed, but some 

 men possess grassland good enough to bring them up 

 to sale point during the summer with the aid of a 

 certain amount of cake. 



The farms ran fairly large, 400 acres or so ; despite 

 the richness of the land and the proximity of the string 

 of suburbs from Chichester to Southampton, the small 

 holder was hardly known, and of late years several 

 small farms had fallen in and been amalgamated into 



