Farming of Northamptonshire. 



79 



old; the steers are then sold to the grazier, and the heifers are 

 put into the dairy stock, to supply the place of the cows annually 

 sold off, either barren or down calving. When calves are not 

 reared they are sold at a fortnight old, or made fat for the butcher, 

 and the dairy herd is kept up by the annual purchase of heifers 

 or cows, to supply the place of those sold out. About a third or 

 fourth part of the grass land is mown every year — unless there is 

 some meadow land connected with the occupation — which gets 

 occasionally a slight dressing of compost dung. A flock of sheep 

 is kept, and the lambs are sold at Michaelmas. Thus a great 

 quantity of the annual produce goes off the land without a corre- 

 sponding return, and the land degenerates by this treatment and 

 becomes weak and mossy. 



Very little cheese is made in this county ; the making of it is 

 chiefly confined to the side of the county adjoining Warwick- 

 shire and Leicestershire. It is taken to Daventry and Harbo- 

 rough cheese fairs for sale. 



The produce of the butter from the dairy districts around 

 Brackley, Daventry, and Stony Stratford is principally sent to 

 London. In the northern part, and in the interior of the county, 

 the butter is forwarded to the nearest market-town, Northampton 

 receiving the largest supply, and being also the great mart for 

 poultry and eggs. 



A considerable breadth of this land is occupied in connexion 

 with arable land, but it is injured if the stock be repeatedly 

 folded away from it on the arable land, without a correspond- 

 ing return ; but when the proportion of grass land is small in 

 comparison to the arable, it is often much improved by having 

 some of the produce of the arable land spent upon it. It is highly 

 probable that the inferior grass land might be greatly benefited 

 by drainage, and a more generous treatment ; but the return being 

 very slow, and the annual produce so scanty that few tenants are 

 disposed to make the outlay, the several proprietors have not 

 been forward in the improvement of this part of their property ; 

 both parties alike seem to have employed their energies and 

 capital in the improvement of the arable land, while the poor 

 thin grass land has been suffered to drag out a profitless exist- 

 ence, and to become less productive. 



Hay-making forms the principal work requiring extra labour 

 on grass land. The great art of securing the hay crop is to get 

 it together sufficiently dry to prevent injury from over-heating or 

 moulding, and yet not to expose it so long to the drying influence 

 of the sun as to cause its most nutritious qualities to evaporate. 

 When rain falls on hay nearly fit to cart to the stack great injury 

 is done to it, both with regard to its colour and quality. Large 

 occupiers use hay-making machines to break and spread the grass, 



