34 



Farming of Lancashire . 



" I removed 920 one-horse cart-loads of stones from the land after it was 

 drained and trenched, which I sold to the Surveyor of Roads, and which 

 paid for the removal, the road being alongside the field, besides 70 loads 

 of good rubble walling-stones from the large stones we had to breakup with 

 hammers and wedges. I sowed the field with Scotch lean oats, and gave 

 it 2cwt. of Peruvian guano to the acre ; it produced 197 thraves, the band 

 being made small on account of the wet season ; the straw was strong and 

 full, but I have not weighed it for thrave. In corn it gave 44J bushels per 

 statute acre, of 39 lbs. to the bushel ; and having made meal several times, 

 I find it gives me 4 loads of 240 lbs. to the load per statute acre. I am now 

 ploughing it for a second crop of oats with a hand-dressing, probably super- 

 phosphate of lime ; and the condition of the land is most satisfactory. 



"From the 4a. 1r. 35p. of oat-stubble which I trenched, I removed 

 nearly 500 one-horse cart-loads of stones, and sold most of them to the 

 roads. I sowed it with swedes, mangold, carrots, and a few potatoes ; and 

 considering the wet summer, 1 had a very fair crop of swedes, about 18 

 tons to the acre ; and with what I have sold and have to sell, I shall more 

 than twice cover the expense of trenching. For mangold-wurzel on poor 

 lands like mine, independent of the muck put into the stitches, I strongly 

 recommend the practice of dibbling in with a trowel every 10 inches a pre- 

 pared compost, and placing the seed immediately upon it. The compost I 

 made last year consisted of bones, horse-feet parings from the blacksmiths' 

 shops, hen-manure, which I carefully save, and ashes, or, still better, refuse 

 charcoal : these were put into a heap under cover, and well wetted with 

 tank-liquid, and left to heat for two months. I have a light wooden roller, 

 the same as a garden roller, 30 inches in diameter, with three strips of wood 

 projecting about an inch railed on at every 10 inches longitudinally; it 

 covers two stitches at once, 30 inches between each, and is drawn by men, 

 and consequently levels to the t op of the stitch, and leaves a mark every 10 

 inches. The compost is put into buckets, and with a garden-trowel the 

 labourer takes out a trowelful of earth and replaces it with a trowelful of 

 manure. The cost of doing this per acre is from 105. to 12s., if done with 

 men : could women or boys be had, it would be less. I steep my seed in 

 liquid manure twenty-four hours, and put in a bag two or three times larger 

 than required, in order to be able to turn the seed and lay it on the midden 

 in a gentle temperature from four days to a week. The bag must be turned 

 every day, and great care taken not to place it in too hot a berth. Last 

 year my hind overheated and destroyed the seed, and the consequence was 

 I had at the third weeks' end to redibble fresh seed ; notwithstanding which 

 I had nearly as fine a crop as any I saw in the better land in the neighbour- 

 hood of Lancaster, owing to the compost and liquid manure. I dibble the 

 seed in with the finger and thumb, placing three seeds at a little distance 

 from each other in the compost at every 10 inches, and cover lightly with 

 the finger. I have thus had it up in a week from the time of sowing. For 

 carrots I recommend, after they are weeded and about 2 inches high, to give 

 them, if the weather be damp, 1 cwt. of guano and 1 cwt. of gypsum per 

 acre, sown on them early in the morning. I did so last year upon my crop, 

 which I thought worthless, and the effect was astonishing. 



"Rotation. — My general "rotation is — of old tough ley, two crops of oats, 

 both hand-dressed ; two, turnips, mangold, drilled beans, potatoes, cabbages, 

 and carrots ; three, oats, with grass seeds, either mown or left to pasture 

 three or four years- — if mown, ploughed up earlier. I do not, however, 

 follow strictly any rotation, but depend entirely upon the condition the land 

 is in. I have two liquid-manure tanks, and attribute my success in growing 

 green crops mainly to its use upon the first appearance of the plant. My 

 common turnips were sown very late last summer ; and in applying the 

 liquid manure when in seed-leaf several rows were missed. The result was 



