216 SHROPSHIRE 



Potatoes sell well in the neighbouring markets of the 

 Potteries and of the Black Country, whose distant 

 chimneys we could just see ; and with this market at 

 hand a good deal of vegetable-growing was done on 

 the root break, even some of the swedes being sold for 

 table when there was a scarcity of other vegetables. 

 Carrots were a speciality ; they required a deeply- 

 worked fine soil that had been manured in the autumn, 

 and they needed a great deal of labour because they 

 had to be weeded and pulled by hand as well as 

 repeatedly moulded up. As we saw them they were a 

 very even crop, wonderfully clean, though they had not 

 yet covered the ground as they would have done with 

 a little more rain. Off the fine red land the carrots 

 pull with a good shape and a clean red colour, so 

 that they can be bunched up straightaway without 

 any washing. The cost of the crop is great, as much 

 as 30 an acre, and there are years in which they 

 sell very badly ; not only must trade be good but 

 potatoes ought also to be cheap, for the working-man's 

 household buys potatoes first and carrots only if there 

 is some money left over. Another breadth was in 

 parsnips, again a speculative crop, even more so than 

 the carrots. 



Among the corn the deficiency of the soil in lime 

 and its tendency to become acid were indicated by 

 the presence of both spurrey and sheep's sorrel as 

 weeds, and this despite the fact that the occupier has 

 begun to lime the land regularly. Salt had also 

 proved to be a valuable adjunct to the other manures, 

 which would point to that lack of potash which is 

 generally associated with sandy soils. The wheat 

 was a fair crop generally, well above the average on 

 some heavier land which occurred on one part of the 

 farm, Standard Red and Stand Up being the varieties 



