440 



Farming of Herefordshire, 



from its property of neutralising those brown acids which form 

 soluble salts with the alkalis, potash, soda, and ammonia, but 

 insoluble ones with lime, magnesia, and the other earthy bases. 

 Whether a soil wants liming may be easily ascertained by 

 placing a little of the soil in a wine glass, with some dilute 

 " liquor ammoniae," spirits of hartshorn " as it is commonly 

 called ; if the liquid becomes perceptibly brown in a few minutes 

 the land will require liming ; if it only assumes a very light tint, 

 after remaining half an hour, no liming will be of service, unless 

 the soil has never been limed, and is deficient in that substance ; 

 the latter is a rare case. Owing to the flatness of many parts 

 of Herefordshire, and the retentive character of its soils, the 

 acids here alluded to do accumulate and render the occasional 

 use of lime not only proper but also advisable. What is 

 beneficial in one place is inimical in another, and that which 

 may prove occasionally remunerative on the heavier soils of the 

 cornstones, especially after having lain long in pasturage, will 

 be found of no effect and unremunerative on the silicious soils 

 of the rye lands. 



The introduction of artificial manures has greatly diminished 

 the use of lime amongst the farmers of Herefordshire ; but it is 

 to be regretted that the conduct of unscrupulous dealers in 

 palming off spurious articles as manures upon the farmers of 

 this county has greatly retarded their more general applica- 

 tion. Wherever genuine portable manures have been employed 

 in Herefordshire their use has been attended with the most 

 marked success, and in so far as high farming has been carried 

 out by their employment the use of lime has been gradually 

 circumscribed, with profit to the farmer, not only in diminished 

 cost of production, but also by the growth of more luxuriant 

 crops. The extension of arable cultivation in Herefordshire is 

 mainly dependent on the future facilities which may be afforded 

 for obtaining portable fertilizers at a moderate cost, for there 

 is not a county in England where their employment can be 

 made so profitable to the occupiers of the soils over so wide 

 an area in proportion to its extent. Few would be found to 

 lime, excepting on raw turf bogs, if they could obtain a suffi- 

 ciency of farm-yard manure ; it may consequently be inferred as 

 a general rule that the use of lime is diminished by high 

 farming. 



Manufacture of Cider and Perry. — The general features con- 

 nected with the manufacture of perry differ little from that of 

 cider, it being understood however that the former is made from 

 the juice of the pear and the latter from that of the apple. 

 One of the earliest treatises on the manufacture of cider was 

 'that of the Rev. Francis le Couteur, of Jersey. But JNIarshall 



