XIV 

 THE MIDLAND MILK BELT 



SOUTH of Ashbourne the Dove valley becomes broad 

 and tranquil and the country falls into the great 

 Midland plain, arable land towards the north, where 

 throughout Cheshire, parts of Stafford and Shropshire, 

 South Derbyshire and Notts the soils are derived from 

 the New Red Sandstone, but almost purely grassland 

 further south, where the broad belt of Lias clay comes 

 in. It is true that the rock is generally obscured by 

 drifts often of considerable thickness, but the greater 

 part of the overburden has not travelled far, and so 

 partakes of the nature of the formation below. Near 

 Leicester we visited a large farm of 400 acres or so, 

 typical of the Midlands in its big Dutch barn and 

 extensive range of comparatively modern brick build- 

 ings, well equipped with machinery and labour-saving 

 contrivances for preparing and distributing fodder, 

 winter fattening being one of the considerable items 

 in the economy of the farm. 



The land was set out in large fields of 40 acres or 

 so, divided by closely kept straight fences, the work of 

 a good tenant under a landlord he could trust, for the 

 farm was the property of a college ; and though there 

 is a heavy indictment against college bursars as 

 business men, they are in good repute as landlords and 

 seem to strike the happy mean between the munificent 



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