220 CHESHIRE 



the colleges is only one sign, but in the making of 

 which they have borne an honourable part. The time 

 is not far distant when, as in America, the colleges 

 will give the lead in all matters agricultural, each in 

 their own district, supplying the judges at the shows 

 and doing much to shape the counsels of all the 

 farmers' societies, whether commercial or political. 



At Newport we were not far from the borders of 

 Cheshire, and the intervening country showed no 

 change of management ; indeed, the farming of Shrop- 

 shire and Cheshire has much in common, it is only the 

 neighbourhood of the great manufacturing centres and 

 the density of the farming population in Cheshire that 

 gives its agriculture a special turn. 



The County Palatine of Cheshire may be described 

 as a continuation of the New Red Sandstone plain 

 that lies between the Pennine Chain of carboniferous 

 rocks and the sea. On the borders of Derbyshire it 

 runs up into somewhat elevated moorland, but else- 

 where the heights are trifling and the slopes gentle ; 

 the sandstone ridge, which runs from north to south 

 and divides the valley of the Dee from that of the 

 Weaver, being rarely more than 400 ft. above sea-level. 

 Though the sandstone rock is never far away and 

 determines the character of the land, the soils are 

 mainly of drift origin ; and, putting aside the areas of 

 true alluvial bordering the Mersey and the Dee, three 

 types may be seen all over the county. Most gener- 

 ally the soil is a strong one, sandy loam varying in 

 colour from dull red to an ashy shade a soil that is 

 not a clay, but wants some care in working, because 

 its fine particles easily run in heavy rain and then 

 set with a hard crust. This shades off in the vales, 

 especially on the Dee side, into heavier soil approach- 

 ing true clays. On the ridge, particularly towards the 



