Farming of Surrey. 



411 



common. The rate of rental varies, from that of the heath hind 

 worth but a few shillings an acre, to that of the best loams, 

 worth 3O5. to 355. ; the average of rents is low, a circumstance which 

 is easily accounted for by the quantity of waste land : many of 

 the farms may be had at 15^. per acre : rates are about 4^. to 65. 

 in the pound ; rent-charge in lieu of tithes, 45. to 65. per acre ; 

 wages, 9^. to IO5. a week. Most of the corn is threshed by 

 flail. 



Sheep are kept in great numbers ; adjoining the downs it is 

 the custom to buy in lambs in the autumn, give them cut 

 turnips and swedes through the winter, and either sell them off 

 in the spring, if they are found in good condition, and buy in a 

 fresh stock, or summer the same on the downs. It is the custom 

 through the summer to keep them on the downs in the day-time, 

 and to give them a fold in the " seeds " at night. On some of the 

 early farms they are frequently put on turnips by the first fortnight 

 in September, and are fattened at two years old, and generally 

 without corn, being selected through the winter and spring for 

 Smithfield and the country markets. Ewes are sometimes kept 

 to sell off fat after lambing ; the lambs are fattened in the usual 

 manner. The Southdown sheep is almost universal. Pigs are 

 fattened on some of the farms in considerable numbers. Oxen 

 are either a mixed variety bred on the farm, or more generally 

 Devons, Herefords, or Welsh bought at the fairs. They are 

 often fattened while running loose in the small yards belonging 

 to the detached homesteads, which are but too common ; the 

 more usual custom is to tie them up in sheds open to the yard, 

 but the most approved method, and of which there are a few* 

 instances, is to fat them loose in boxes. 



The general rotation of cropping is the four-course, viz., 1, 

 turnips ; 2, barley ; 3, seeds ; 4, wheat. Peas are often sown as 

 a fifth crop ; and a part of the fallow is generally devoted to the 

 growth of tares, rye, and trifolium ; but this is not so much 

 done as might be supposed from the early nature of the soil. 



It is the custom to plough up the wheat stubbles as soon after 

 harvest as possible ; and when trifolium is sown it cannot be 

 done too early. 



On the heavy land of the gait, lying immediately under the 

 chalk, the above rotation cannot be observed ; mangolds are 

 frequently grown instead of turnips, then v/heat, and afterwards 

 beans. Carrots and cabbage are occasionally grown, but the 

 former not to the extent which the nature of the light land seems 

 to render advisable. 



Turnips are invariably grown on the flat, the ridge system not 

 answering on these dry soils. The most common sorts are the 

 Pomeranian and green-round ; and of swedes, Skirving's purple- 



