Farminfj of Derhijshire. 



37 



Long Course Farm contains 480 statute acres ; the greater part 

 being meadow and pasture land. From 15 to 25 acres of turnips 

 are grown annual!}^ ; but the quantity is very much regulated by 

 the weather, and the season for preparing the land, which is not 

 the most favourable for turnip cultivation. All the fallow land 

 not in a state for turnips is carried on and sown with wheat in the 

 autumn. The new premises are well arranged and convenient. 

 Inside the farm-yard is a pitched road round ; the manure-pit in 

 the centre sunk in the ground about 2 feet. To prevent the rain^ 

 water falling on the road from running into and damaging the 

 manure, the pit has a raised wall about 2 feet high, over which 

 the manure from the stalls is thrown. Very little liquid runs from 

 the manure-pit in the w^ettest weather, which joins the water 

 falling outside on the road, and irrigates the land below the house. 

 There is a plan of irrigation at Long Course now under trial, 

 which appears at present to answer very well — that of using 

 water issuing from drains. The idea is new, and, if it answers, 

 will show that motion, or it may be friction, has much to do with 

 the principle of irrigation. 



Tlie breed of cattle is mixed, as generally found in the county. 

 About 70 head were in comfortable quarters, growing, and con- 

 verting straw into dung of the best kind. This appears to be a 

 plan not approved of in the southern part of the county. On the 

 rich gravels and clays of that Goshen-land, the young stock is 

 generally in the fields, chipfly because the manure is not icantedy 

 the land requiring none. 



Lime is burned on the estate ; the stone brought from Ashover 

 or Middleton to the Duckmanton kiln : the colliery supplying 

 the slack. The lime is sold to the tenants at ^s. per ton, being 

 prime cost. It has been applied to the pastures with great success, 

 at the rate of 5 tons per acre, costing in cartage and labour 

 about 3/., and had a most beneficial effect in sv.eetening the 

 herbage and filling the land with clovers.* 



These remarks on the husbandry of the coal-series will apply 

 northward to the county terminus, embracing the parishes of 

 Eckington, Whittington, Dronfield, Norton, and Beighton. The 

 latter place is a portion of the Earl Manvers' estates, and generally 

 a dry and open grit-stone soil, and particularly warm and sheltered, 

 having the advantage of excellent meadows formed by the wash- 

 ings and detritus of the river Rother. In making a comparison 

 between the husbandry and early harvests of Beighton with 

 surrounding places, it must be remembered that the river there 



* A sort of rough tussac grass is common on pasture lands, ^vhich nothing will 

 eat. It is locally called " bull-pate," and only destroyed by rooting up.* 



