Farming of Dcrhysldre. 



57 



road to Buxton, the rock is near the surface and the climate colder, 

 yet affording good summer pasturage for all kinds of stock. On 

 these mountain pastures there are no insect tormentors, and on 

 the hottest days the cattle mount the highest hills, or bathe in 

 the rivers. The stock on the barest hills, where the rock is naked 

 and craggy, are frequently the Highland Scot, who travelling south 

 enjoy themselves in a warmer climate. 



Following the line of the Peak Forest Railway from Buxton 

 to Cromford, a distance of 25 miles, the country is undulating and 

 mountainous, but rich in pasturage, and the land generally dry. 

 The arable is of limited extent, and is chiefly useful to the 

 farmers for the straw and the turnips. In describing the cultivation 

 of the arable soils of this part of the county, I shall follow the 

 particulars given me by a gentleman many years a resident : — 



Nature has given but a scanty covering of soil in this district, yet the 

 farmers are able to grow good crops of oats and turnips ; and were the climate 

 less severe, no doubt the northern farmer would be able to compete with his 

 more fortunate brother who is domiciled in the southern part of the county. 

 Where any system is at all pursued, the first step in growing turnips is to 

 prepare a clean fallow in the usual way. The couch-grass and root-weeds are 

 gathered and carted to a vacant corner of the field, either to be burnt, or 

 to undergo the more approved practice of mixing with hot lime, and, after 

 being turned several times, put in its reduced state upon the young seeds. 

 Most farmers now drill their turnips on the flat, with from 3 to 5 quarters of 

 bones per acre, at a cost of 18s. to 21s. per quarter ; and by doing this they 

 are able to manure a part of the meadow and pasture land. Guano is not 

 much liked in this district. Turnip-hoeing is well attended to ; and in 

 November the larger roots are pulled and stored for the ewes in spring, and 

 young stock in the straw-yards, and the remainder consumed on the land. 

 The second year the land is ploughed and dressed for oats, and seeded down 

 with white and red clover, trefoil rib-grass, common and sometimes Italian 

 rye-grass. The oats are either mown or cut with a hook, called here a badging- 

 hook; and when removed, the prepared lime and soil before alluded to is laid 

 on the seeds. In some cases lime is put on alone, at the rate of from 50 to 

 60 one-horse loads per acre (12 pecks to a load). Lime is bought at the 

 public sale kilns at 10c?. to Is. per load ; but as slack is now readily obtained 

 by the Peak Railway, the farmers prefer burning it themselves, which may be 

 done at a cost of 8<i. or %d. per load. The seeds are pastured twelve or four- 

 teen years, and the land again sown w ith oats. Very little wheat or barley is 

 grown ; oats are more profitable. On the old grass-land, where the herbage 

 is coarse and sour, frequent dressings of lime are resorted to, which seldom 

 fail bringing up the white clover, and improving the quantity and quality of 

 the milk.' Cheese is the great staple of the district, and many of the Derby- 

 shire dairies are equal in production to those of Cheshire or Gloucestershire. 

 Some persons use bones on the grass land ; their effects are more lasting where 

 cheese is made. The Duke of DevoBshire and Thomas Bateman, Esq., have 

 planted extensively. In exposed situations the ash, the elm, and larch become 

 unsightly. The sycamore stands best for the outside of plantations, or for 

 planting singly along the fences as shelter. The pair-horse plough, the drags, 

 and harrows, are of the common kind, and carts are preferred to waggons 

 in the hilly parts of the county. The farm-buildings are generall}' badly 

 arranged, and unsuitable for improved husbandry ; but considerable improve- 

 ments are going forward on the Devonshire estates, under the agency of 



