Farming of Derbyshire. 



17 



The profit then of No. 2, with reference to No. 1, after de- 

 ducting the value of the manure, is as near as possible 145 per 

 cent, upon the outlay : 



Of No. 3 exactly 100 per cent. 

 Of No. 4 about 63 per cent. 

 Of No. 5 over 80 per cent. 



I have induced several of my agricultural friends to try the 

 nitrate this spring, and I have also requested them to use 10 

 bushels of soot with it, as well as the salt, as the soot not only 

 adds to the weight of the wheat, but increases the straw, and 

 renders it stronger and brighter. I shall hope to be able to 

 report the result of these trials after next harvest. In the mean- 

 time, offering you my best thanks for having brought the nitrate 

 to the notice of farmers, I remain yours faithfully, 



J. M. Tylden. 



Milsted, Sittinghourne, Kent, 

 February 21, 1853. 



III. — The Farming of Derby sJiirc. By John Jephson RovvXei'. 

 Prize Report. 



It is sometimes said, " good land makes a good farmer ; " yet 

 farming is, in many instances, found in a flourishing condition 

 surrounded by great physical difficulties of soil and climate, 

 and making but a limited return for the labour bestowed upon 

 it. The soil, too, m^ay be rich in all the elements necessary to 

 produce and maintain vegetable life, while the situation is 

 elevated and the climate cold and uncongenial. And such is 

 the county I am going to treat. It contains land of the richest 

 kind, both for arable and grazing purposes. The banks of the 

 Dove, where old Izaac Walton loved to watch the stream, are 

 proverbial for the grazing qualities of its pastures, and the lands 

 washed by the Derwent and the Trent are " flowing with milk 

 and hone}^" Derbyshire is no less fertile in its arable soils ; 

 but at the same time it possesses in abundance the wild and 

 desolate moor and the mountain waste. Its climate is no less 

 variable than its soils. Near the centre of the county rises the 

 first link in the great Alpine chain of England which, intersect- 

 ing the county, continues onward to Scotland. Parallel with its 

 mountains lies embedded its vast and valuable coal-field, ex- 



VOL. XIV. c 



