532 General Results of a Gardening Tour : — 



lines and right angles of the fields, and the superior condi- 

 tion of the fences, buildings, and roads. Most old enclosures 

 seem to have been more the result of accident than of design ; 

 and their crooked hedges and roads, and the irregularity of 

 their farm-houses and cottages, bear the same confused charac- 

 ter, and will probably long continue to do so ; for it is much 

 easier to lay out a new country than to mend an old one. 



Agriculture, we observed in our last, began to assume a 

 somewhat better appearance about Manchester. The culture 

 of the potato there, and throughout Lancashire, is carried to 

 a degree of perfection nearly equal to that of East Lothian. 

 In some places two rows are grown together, at the distance 

 of 14 in., and the space between is 33 in., in Mr. Curwen's 

 manner ; in others, and for the greater part, they are grown 

 in single rows, at the distance of 27 in. : the advantage of the 

 former mode is, that coarser implements and deeper stirring 

 may be used in the intervals. In the north of Lancashire, 

 and in Cumberland and Westmoreland, turnips are grown on 

 raised ridgelets, as in the Berwickshire system ; and this crop, 

 and that of potatoes, seem to be employed, in most places in 

 those counties, and in Dumfriesshire, as a substitute for naked 

 fallow. Iron swing ploughs, drawn by two horses, are in gene- 

 ral use throughout the same tract ; but in only one place, the 

 Rig of Gretna, did we meet with a cultivator of an improved 

 construction. Here we saw one founded on Kirkwood's, in 

 the possession of Mr. Carruthers, considerably improved 

 by him, which, he assured us, did with four horses the 

 work of four ploughs, and in a much more efficient man- 

 ner, because, at the same time, it did the work of harrows 

 and couch rakes. Since he began to use this implement, he 

 never ploughs for his green crops or fallows above twice ; 

 once in breaking up from stubble, and once in giving the 

 seed furrow, or making up the drills for receiving the manure 

 for potatoes or turnips. An extensive arable farmer, with 

 this description of implement, can dispense with three fourths 

 of the usual number of ploughs and ploughmen that are 

 requisite when ploughs only are used. * 



Single-horse carts come into use about Manchester, but 

 among the farmers generally with wooden axles, and with the 

 tiers of the wheels in segments. From Liverpool northwards 

 to Lancaster, a smaller cart and lighter wheels are used ; 

 and from Carlisle to Dumfries the one-horse cart, with iron 

 axles, and the tire of one ring. Throughout the northern 

 parts of Lancashire, and in Dumfriesshire, a small hardy 

 breed of horses is used, and short-horned English cattle and 

 Scotch Galloways are common. 



