Farming of Lancashire. 



13 



with Mr. Wilson at their head, have taken the matter up, and 

 are endeavouring to form a Society for the protection of their 

 interests, and the removal of such works, which certainly are 

 most objectionable in the midst of an agricultural district. It is 

 to be hoped that by the united efforts of both the landowners and 

 occupiers this evil will soon be entirely suppressed. 



Proceeding westward, towards Liverpool, we come into the 

 neighbourhood of Knowsley ; the soil here becomes lighter, and, 

 resting upon a substratum of new red-sandstone, is more forward 

 and more easily worked than the cold clays of East Lancashire. 

 One of the most interesting farms on the Earl of Derby's pro- 

 perty in this part of the country is Halewood, comprising 300 

 statute acres, and now occupied by Mr. Robert Neilson : this 

 gentleman, since he took the farm about 10 years ago, has spared 

 no pains or expense to render it one of the most complete and 

 perfect establishments in the country, nor is it merely as gratifi- 

 cation of a personal feeling, or the indulgence of a temporary 

 fancy, that the system which he has adopted is to be viewed ; he 

 has been trying to work out, as a matter of business and practical 

 inquiry, an experiment in which all the landowners and farmers 

 of Lancashire are more or less interested. Expensive imple- 

 ments have been purchased by him, and used on the farm ; a 

 fixed steam-engine of 6-horse power is constantly at work in the 

 different operations of cutting hay and straw, crushing oats, 

 cutting turnips, sawing wood, and steaming all kinds of proven- 

 der for horses, cows, and pigs. A small railway or tramroad has 

 been laid down in the yards for the purpose of carrying the food 

 to the animals and conveying away the manure to the dungheap, 

 whilst a considerable length of light moveable railway, an invention 

 of Mr. Neilson's, is used in bringing the produce of the fields to 

 the farm-yard — in wet weather and on level ground, a most valuable 

 expedient. If Mr. Neilson has done this as a farmer, it is to be 

 hoped that the farming community may some day or other be put 

 in possession of the results, or at least may be informed whether 

 the balance is on the debit or credit side of the account. All the 

 farm is drained with horseshoe tiles and slate soles, the latter 

 being the refuse of the Welsh quarries. I was informed by the 

 farm bailiff, who kindly took me over the farm in the absence of 

 Mr. Neilson, that pipes had been tried ; but they do not answer 

 in that neighbourhood, inasmuch as the crevices become choked 

 up with a kind of weed or the roots of plants — consequently their 

 use has been abandoned. The drains are laid at a depth of 

 2 ft. 6 in. or 3 ft. 6 in., and the mains, where there is fall, 

 4 ft., the space between the former being 7 or 9 yards. Wheat, 

 oats, barley, beans, vetches, and turnips are all grown upon the 

 farm ; but potatoes have been given up. The course is as fol- 



