VII 



CHESHIRE: DAIRYING AND INTENSIVE 

 CULTIVATION 



BEFORE leaving Shropshire we called at the Harper 

 Adams Agricultural College, an institution serving 

 this and the neighbouring county of Stafford. It is 

 situated on the same gently undulating plain as the 

 farms we had previously been visiting, and occupies a 

 stretch of similar light, easy-working soil, with a range 

 of good buildings, more modern than but resembling 

 those prevailing on neighbouring farms. The fields 

 were largely divided into plots, which showed varieties, 

 methods of manuring, etc., without interfering with 

 the general run of the farming, and some of the root 

 crops, especially the mangolds, looked particularly well 

 for the season and the soil. 



But the most important fact concerning the college, 

 which we learnt both from the farmers we saw going 

 round and from others at a distance, is that it has now 

 become recognized as an integral part of the agri- 

 cultural life of the district, not only to be visited as a 

 novelty but to be consulted in difficulties. When we 

 remember the feeling of farmers towards such institu- 

 tions fifteen or twenty years ago, the attitude of 

 patronage, suspicion, or hostility which was adopted 

 with regard to their every action, we realize what an 

 intellectual revival has taken place in agriculture a 

 change of temper, of which the consideration given to 



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