86] A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



come out of repair, and if by any accident they get out of order, 

 the work admits of easy reparation. Since they were exempted 

 from duty (an advantage for which the agriculturist is chiefly in- 

 debted to the exertions of Sir John Wrottesley, when he repre- 

 sented Lichfield in Parliament :) it will be generally found that 

 tile-draining is the cheapest of any permanent mode. Irrigation 

 has been extensively adopted in various parts of the county, 

 according to the most approved methods, and has been found of 

 infinite advantage. The use of lime at the period before alluded 

 to, was little known. Of late years it has been extensively ap- 

 plied, both upon the arable land, and, as a top-dressing, upon the 

 grass lands; and under judicious management has been found to 

 be highly beneficial. 



The implements of husbandry have been much attended to. 

 The Staffordshire Plough is an efficient implement, and the con- 

 struction has been in many parts improved by imitating the Swing 

 Ploughs, that have been introduced from Leicestershire, from the 

 northern counties, and from Scotland. The Twin Harrow, per- 

 haps the best of all implements for eradicating weeds and bring- 

 ing the soil into good tilth, is coming into very general use. 



The waggons and carts are constructed upon a less heavy and a 

 less cumbrous plan. At Tamworth, one and two-horse carts are 

 made as good and as cheap as in any part of the United Kingdom. 

 At Wolverhampton the various sorts of drilling machines are 

 manufactured, a proof that this excellent system of husbandry is 

 making gradual advances amongst us. 



A more economical attention is paid to the making and collect- 

 ing of various kinds of composts and manures than was formerly 

 done ; and they are certainly applied to the land in a much more 

 scientific manner than they used to be. The gates and fences are 

 kept in better repair ; the mode of laying and pleaching hedges 

 has very much improved of late. But considerable as the im- 

 provements in agriculture may have been in this county, yet it 

 must be confessed that very much remains to be done. 



The arable lands are not yet brought in general, to that clean 

 and perfect tilth, which is essential for the securing of first-rate 

 crops. The drill husbandry has not made that progress which it 

 ought to have done, from the examples which have been set in 

 different parts of the county. The practice of getting white 

 strawed crops in succession is by far too general ; and the clover 

 seed is almost always sown upon land that is exhausted and foul 



