Farming of Derbyshire. 



43 



notice in a report of Derbyshire farming. Stanton-house is 

 715 feet above the sea-level ; and the farm shows what may be 

 done in defiance of difficulties by an outlay of capital and 

 labour in reclaiming the waste. A great part of the farm has 

 lately been taken from the moor at an average cost of 15Z. per 

 acre.* The first process was the draining at 18 to 20 inches 

 deep, 6 and 7 yards apart. This was found insufficient, and 

 deeper drains, from 3 to 4 feet put in, and a perfect, though ex- 

 pensive drainage completed. The cropping followed at Stanton 

 is the four-course ; and beginning with the first year, turnip, 

 fallow ; second year, wheat or oats ; third year, seeded, and oc- 

 casionally mown ; fourth year, wheat. The turnips are grown 

 with bones and guano, and a heavy dressing of farm-yard manure. 

 The bulk of them is consumed on the land by sheep purchased 

 in the autumn, chiefly of the Leicester and Shropshire Down 

 breed. The wheat is sown after the turnips up to Christmas, 

 and the remainder of the turnip-land with oats in the spring. 

 The average produce of the oats may be taken at 7 qrs. to the 

 acre, and wheat at4Jqrs., of excellent quality.j Many calves are 

 reared on the farm, and a considerable dairy of useful cows fed 

 on linseed and rape-cake, with hay and turnips. Rape-cake was 

 given to cows for the first time last year ; but the bailiff said, 



Rape-cake was better for sheep than cows." On the top o£ 

 this hill every kind of implement may be found, from the Bed- 

 ford plough to the drill and clod-crusher. Favoured by a 

 southern aspect, and sheltered from the north and westerly 

 winds by extensive plantations of larch and spruce, the farming 

 at this elevation is under favoured circumstances, and very dif- 

 ferent to the opposite hills facing the north and east. It may be 

 a question of importance how far beneficial the plantations have 

 been to agriculture at Stanton. At this elevation in no part of 

 the midland counties has autumn wheat been successfully grown, 

 while in the Peak, and near the mountains, wheat is never at- 

 tempted at elevations from 100 to 200 feet below. 



The Derwent flows through the vale of the millstone-grit, 

 whose mountains supply its tributary streams. Chatsworth- 

 house stands on its banks. The greater part of the park and 

 the land at Edensor is on this formation. It is at once good 

 land and useful for pasture and arable purposes. The best crops 

 of turnips and roots are grown on its soil, and it is no less famous 



* One portion of Stanton Moor cost 50Z. an acre, in stubbing, ridding, and 

 blowing up grit rock. 



f In the South of France, according to De Candolle, wheat is cultivated at 

 5,400 feet above the sea, rye at 6,600 feet. The limit of corn cultivation in the 

 Alps is 3,800 feet. 



