92 



Farming of Northamptonshire. 



rent being from 5^. to 2O5. per year, and the tenants are expected 

 to keep them in a tenantable state of repair ; this in too many cases 

 they neglect to do, and the property falls into decay. When the 

 cottages are the property of private individuals they are built for 

 investment, and command a higher rental, varying from 21. to 4/. 

 per year, the owner doing the repairs. Earl Spencer has of late 

 years been very much improving the cottages on his estate ; 

 Lord Overstone has also erected some model ones at Abingdon, 

 Lord Southampton has much improved the village of Whittlebury ; 

 and many other resident landed proprietors have been led to take 

 active steps to improve the dwellings of the agricultural labourers, 

 but in some districts they still present a forlorn and dilapidated 

 appearance. 



On the Mode and Extent of Drainage done throughout the County. 



During the last 20 years a very considerable proportion of the 

 heavy arable land has been " furrow- drained ;" this has been done 

 with tiles, stone, blackthorn wood, or straw. The work is executed 

 by digging the drains up the furrow, between the lands, from 20 

 to 30 inches deep, into which the materials used have been 

 placed, as in drawing A. This kind of draining not lasting 

 many years, the work has been again repeated, and in some 

 districts of heavy wet land, draining is a regular employment 

 every winter, on some parts of a farm. On the wet grass-land, 

 draining has been done to a more limited extent ; in some cases 

 the work has been executed by head drains being laid at the end 

 or head of the lands, and the furrows drained with a draining 

 plough, drawn by 4 or 6 horses, cutting a small groove through 

 the turf, penetrating into the soil from 18 to 20 inches, and form- 

 ing a cavity below the surface, with a share, formed like a sugar- 

 loaf. The Rev. T. Tryon, of Bulwick, has adopted this plan 

 with advantage for some years past on the rectory farm, and 

 he informed me that he has a plough with which he can execute 

 from 8 to 10 acres of furrow-draining in a day. Turf-draining 

 is the plan mostly adopted. The turf is taken off the top, and a 

 drain dug out about 30 inches deep, the last spit or draw being 

 much narrower than the preceding one, thereby forming a shoulder 

 on which the turf is laid, as in drawing B or the system of 

 wedge-draining is pursued by a drain being cut out, and con- 

 tracted angularly to a very narrow bottom, a grass-sod is then cut 

 from the turf in the form of a wedge, the grass side being the 

 narrowest. The sods are then placed in the drain, the grass 

 side undermost, and pressed down tightly as far as they will go, 

 thereby leaving a cavity, forming a regular drain, as in drawing 

 B h. Of these the wedge-system is decidedly the best, and when 



