Farming of Surrey. 



417 



Husbandry. — The buildings throughout Surrey are very inferior : 

 although many improved homesteads have been erected, there is 

 still no single locality which does not abound in old-fashioned, 

 badly- arranged, and patched farm-buildings. The farmers are 

 growing more and more aware of the nature and importance of 

 liquid manure, and are beginning to make every effort for its pre- 

 servation which their means will allow ; it is, nevertheless, fre- 

 quently to be seen discolouring the horse-pond or flowing over 

 the road, instead of conducing to the abundance of our crops. 

 In travelling through the county, a stranger would be struck by 

 the number of thatched buildings and detached outhouses which 

 too often form the apology for farm-buildings ; and in the Weald 

 especially they are frequently placed in a deep hollow, appa- 

 rently with a view to shelter them from observation ! The more 

 immediate effect consists in the abundant supply of water which 

 is conducted through the yard ; and, as water is no longer the 

 principal item in the manufacture of farm-yard manure, a general 

 remodelling of the buildings is greatly required. It would not be 

 doing justice, however, to the enterprise and capital which are 

 now being directed to the improvement of agriculture in Surrey, 

 as well as elsewhere, if the writer omitted to mention the change 

 which is taking place with respect to farm-buildings, as well as 

 every other branch of the art. The first step which is taken for 

 improvement is to prevent the too great access of water to the 

 yard by shooting the tiles or thatch ; and where the desire for 

 improvement exists, the buildings are brought more compactly 

 together, and are occasionally constructed upon such a uniform 

 plan as admits of the application of machinery for threshing, 

 cutting chaff and roots, and grinding corn, &c. Boxes for the 

 fattening of cattle loose have in a few instances been erected, 

 and are highly approved. 



It will not be necessary to particularize upon a subject which 

 presents nothing new for the notice of the Society ; it may there- 

 fore be sufficient to observe, that while there is no single locality 

 which does not admit of great improvement in its farm-buildings, 

 there is not one which does not present some gratifying excep- 

 tions to the general neglect. 



The extent of Under- Draining effected in the County. — The 

 greatest proportion of draining has been effected in the Weald, 

 and upon the London clay ; in many of the other districts the 

 nature of the surface causes the land to suffer more from the lack 

 than from the superabundance of moisture. Nevertheless, the 

 character of the substratum frequently renders some of the light 

 land exceedingly wet and springy ; this is the case at Chertsey 

 and the neighbourhood, where the soil is a strong and stiff loam 

 with a substratum of clay. Here a great portion of draining has 



