27G 
The Agriculture of Staffordshire. 
plough ; 5 cwts. of guano are used when no clung is to be given, 
but, as the whole of the roots are drawn off, dung is given if 
possible. The drill, with a sliding axle and a roller attached to 
the front part of it, is drawn by a pony, and takes two ridges at 
once ; a small roll follows. The crop is sown with 4 lbs. per acre, 
from the middle to the end of May ; 25 tons are a common 
crop. 20 tons of dung and 4 cwts. of guano per acre are used 
for cabbages ; 40 tons are an occasional crop. Cabbage-seed 
(Robinson's Champion Drumhead) is sown about the 14th or 
16th of August, pricked out in beds 4 inches apart in October 
and November, to make them stout and stocky ; these are planted 
in the field in April and May, and come in during October and 
November. A succession crop, to follow up to Christmas, is sown 
on a warm border early in March and transplanted at once into 
the field in June, at 2 feet apart. This farm has the cool moist 
climate of a rather elevated situation in North Staffordshire. 
Barley cannot be grown, and mangold is surpassed in weight by 
other root-crops, which are superior both in quality and produc- 
tion. Swedes keep till April. 
2nd. Wheat or oats drilled on 4-yard lands after the removal 
of the fallow crop. 
3rd. Mixed seeds, which are dressed with artificial manure 
and sometimes boned. The first crop is mown for hay ; the 
aftermath is fed. 
4th. Seeds, fed invariably and broken up for wheat or oats. If 
for the former, the land is ploughed before Midsummer, then 
ploughed across, harrowed down, dressed with from 2 to 3 tons of 
lime per acre, and ploughed in 4-yard lands. A light dressing of 
artificial manure is applied in spring, if required ; wheat sown 
after ; one furrow would generally be worried by slugs. 2 bushels 
of seed per acre are drilled. 
6th. Oats. The land is ploughed as soon as possible after 
harvest, and laid up deep and dry in 4-yard lands ; in spring it is 
dragged down and sown without ploughing. This crop is not 
sown until after the second week in March, for fear of the land 
running together. Oats after seeds are sown a fortnight earlier, 
because the turf-furrow acts as a drain, and prevents the land 
becoming set. 2-| cwts. of guano or 4 cwts. of prepared bone- 
manure are used for oats, following wheat. 5 or 6 bushels of seed 
are planted. 
In some seasons the second-year seeds can ill be spared at Mid- 
summer, and occasionally, as last year, the ground is so hard as to 
render it almost impossible to break the leas up at that time ; 
in that case oats are taken instead of wheat after the seeds. The 
land is ploughed as soon as possible after Christmas, and the 
furrows pressed, and the earliest variety of oats is sown. As soon 
