60 



Farming of Northamptonshire. 



very highly, and do not follow any regular system of cropping. 

 They sow every year that crop they consider likely to be the most 

 productive, and for which the state of the land and the season 

 seem to be adapted. I have seen the following system tried, 

 for successive years: — 1, turnips; 2, wheat, sown in February; 

 3, clover; 4, wheat; 5, barley. And also the following: — 

 1, turnips ; 2, barley ; 3, barley sown Avith seeds ; 4, clover ; 

 b, wheat. 



On this land stock-feeding forms a very considerable portion 

 of the produce of the farm ; the turnips in winter and the seeds 

 in summer, v/ith a portion of natural herbage, enables the 

 occupier to keep a considerable quantity of stock on the land. 

 Sheep form the principal stock. A breeding flock of ewes is 

 generally kept, and the lambs are either sold from the turnip- 

 pens, one year old, or kept and shorn, and made off fat, early in 

 the summer. When a breeding flock is not kept, lambs and 

 shear-hogs are bought in at Michaelmas and made fat on turnips, 

 or during the ensuing summer ; or ewes are purchased for the 

 purpose of rearing lambs, and both sold off, fat, during the year, 

 and replaced every season. 



The neat cattle consists often of cows kept for the dairy, bought 

 in as heifers, milked a few years and then sold out again, down 

 calving or made fat for the butcher. When cows are not kept for 

 the dairy, beasts or barren cows are purchased in the winter to 

 consume the straw, receiving in addition some turnips or oil-cake. 

 They are turned out in the summer on the grass land to get fat, 

 or sold in the spring to the grazier. Some farmers purchase half- 

 meaty cows in the autumn and put them into the stalls ; these 

 are fed on swede turnips, barley or bean meal, and hay, with an 

 addition of oil-cake towards the latter part of the season. 



Some few years ago, upon the recommendation of Mr. Warnes, 

 the Rev. Sir George Robinson, Bart., and other gentlemen com- 

 menced the growth of linseed lor cattle, but it was not very success- 

 ful, owing to the want of suitable machinery to convert the fibre into 

 flax, and is now almost abandoned. I have understood that Mr. 

 Wallis, of Rowell Lodge, continues to grow it, and he, in con- 

 nexion with other occupiers near Kettering, has commenced the 

 groAvth of chicory. 



Since the disease in the potatoes the growth of them has de- 

 creased. They are grown extensively around Northampton for 

 the supply of the town, but are not much cultivated in other parts 

 of the county, except for the table, being considered great ex- 

 hausters of the soil. They are principally cultivated by spade 

 labour in gardens, or the corners of ploughed fields ; occasionally 

 they are ploughed in, the seed being deposited by boys, and 

 covered over by the furrow. 



