92J A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



300 acres, and a full crop, a large quantity of which was then in 

 hand in the stack, but going to a good market, being contracted 

 for at 9s. per bushel, 2000 bushels to be delivered immediately, 

 which the threshing-mill can get out in ten days. With the barley 

 is always sown plenty of the usual seeds, red and white clover, 

 trefoil, and ray grass, and it was intended in future to confine the 

 cultivation generally within less compass ; about 100 acres of tur- 

 nips, and the same breadth of barley and grass seeds each year ; 

 the turnips were then extremely promising for a full crop. 



The usual course of crops : 1. wheat; 2. turnips ; 3. barley and 

 seeds ; sometimes, 1. pease ; 2. wheat ; 3. turnips ; 4. barley and 

 seeds : or on weaker land, 1. pease ; 2. turnips ; 3. barley and 

 seeds, and wheat omitted. Manure laid on for the turnips : lime, 

 farm-yard dung, or rape cake ; the barley and wheat were then 

 full crops, a considerable breadth of pease and vetches, good. The 

 soil is generally a sandy or gravelly loam, with plenty of pebbles : 

 the original spontaneous produce, heath and furze. The site of 

 the upland generally varied and uneven; the knobs or brows of 

 banks, generally poor and thin of soil ; many of them are very 

 properly reserved for clumps and plantations. Lord Anson's 

 ploughing is uniformly done with a swing plough, with two horses 

 a-breast, without a driver. Cooke's drill machine has been much 

 used both for wheat and barley, putting in two bushels of barley 

 per acre, three being sown broad-cast. When barley is drilled, 

 the ground is harrowed for the grass seeds and rolled, without any 

 hoeing. Turnips have been sown by Cooke's drill, at both nine 

 and twelve inches distant with success, but they are now chiefly 

 sown on the Northumberland ridge, and astonishing crops have 

 been ^rown upon the gravelly hills. 



For cleaning the land, both horse-hoeing and hand-hoeing have 

 been used, as well as hand-weeding ; the most prevalent weeds in 

 the turnip crops being corn lake-weed (polygonuni persicarea), corn 

 spurry (spergula arvensis), and chick weed. 



The carting, ploughing, and team-work, was then done by horses, 

 of which about thirty were kept for draught, including the drawing 

 of fuel, building materials, &c. which are sometimes considerable. 

 Some time back, seventeen oxen were kept for draught ; and the 

 reason assigned for the change is, the land being strong and un- 

 even, and on those accounts inconvenient to cultivate with oxen. 



Of Grass Land the quantity is very considerable, consisting of 

 water meadows on the Trent and Sow rivers, subject to inunda- 



