Farming of Derbyshire. 



27 



easy to manage. Turnip-clrills, corn-drills, and horse-hoes are 

 no less common ; they are made at Edingley and Worksop, and 

 one made by Smith, of Peasenhall, is considered the best in the 

 district. The horse-rakes, made by Smith of Stamford, are the 

 most useful implements on a farm : they are not numerous, but 

 they must, now labour is d^ar, become so. Corn-dressing 

 machines, blowers, and hummellers, are in every barn, and often 

 attached by belt and pulley to the gear of the thrashing-machines. 

 Gardener's turnip-cutter is rarely seen ; perhaps it is because a 

 cutter answering the same purpose is made at less cost. It is a 

 complaint frequently made by the farmers, that the cost of imple- 

 ments has not been reduced proportionately with the price of 

 other articles ; and many are made, and will be made, on the 

 farms. 



Carts and IVaggons. — The old-fashioned ponderous carts and 

 waggons are replaced by light and handy machines. Waggons 

 have the preference in the harvest-field, particularly where the 

 land is hilly. 



The subsoil-plough is not a comimon implement on the lime- 

 stone, the thinness of the soil being unfavourable to its wwking. 

 Where it can be worked, it is of the greatest advantage in de- 

 stroying thistles and other deep-rooted weeds. 



Before leaving the implements of the limestone soils, it may 

 not be out of place to notice more particularly the moveable 

 steam-thrashing machine of Mr. Scorer, of Scarcliffe. It is the 

 most complete machine of its kind. The thrashing part is 

 made by Goucher, of Woodsetts, near W^orksop ; the engine, 

 of six-horse power, by Tuxford and Sons. It was a debat- 

 able question with Mr. Scorer, whether he should have a fixed 

 or moveable engine. He decided to have the latter, and it 

 may be said that he has both. When the engine is drawn into 

 the shed or house made on purpose, it then becomes a fixture, 

 and works from a belt and pulley-wheel all the barn and farm 

 machinery. It requires no trouble in fixing ; the curb-stones 

 and the blocks are so arranged, it cannot be placed wrong. In 

 this way it answers all the purposes of a fixed engine, and it can 

 at any time be moved at pleasure. 



2. The Coal Series is of great extent, as already given, and 

 presents a different aspect and character to the magnesian lime. 

 It is undulating and rolling, ridge and furrowlike. What mighty 

 power deposited for the use of man its valuable beds of coal and 

 iron, it is is not now my province to inquire. The measures 

 connected with the coal-fields are generally of a perishable and 

 clayey character, and the soils and subsoils over its entire extent 

 partake more or less of a wet, spongy nature, and are cold and 

 sterile unless well drained, and treated with other manures and 



