290 
The Agriculture of Staffordshii e. 
acre. It is a preventive of anbury ; seeds are improved by it, the 
sample of wheat is brighter, and the straw stiffer. On land depas- 
tured several years, it destroys grubs. After folding one-hall, or 
two-thirds, of the ground, the land is ploughed once and reduced 
to a fine tilth for barley, which is sown at least a fortnight later 
than in the eastern counties. The bulk is sown in April instead 
of in March ; the best farmers prefer to sow between 20th March 
and 10th April. Barley is liable to be injured by the north-east 
winds if sown earlier in this climate. The quantity of seed- 
wheat sown is larger than in the corn districts just named ; 5 to 
6 pecks, which would be considered amply sufficient during the 
first ten daj s in October, is thought here to be very thin seed- 
ing ; and later in the season the quantity sown is 8 to 10 and 11 
pecks.* Wheat is seldom sown before the middle of October 
on the light land, which ought to be well moistened first by 
rains. 
The reader will remember that the new red sandstone forma- 
tion comprises marls, elsewhere described ; sandstone rock, 
sometimes coming to the surface, sometimes covered with a deep 
rich soil; and beds of gravel- drift, which seldom make rich 
land, and are frequently covered with very thin poor soil. In 
this district there are sandstones and gravels as a rule, and marl 
beds as an exception. There are transition soils, which are 
sometimes fertile, and sometimes apparently consist of the 
worst ingredients washed from distant strata— poor yellow clays 
mixed with stones, poor gravels, and weak brashy soils that 
require very high feeding. These soils are far from productive, 
but with high farming they generally produce good seeds and 
turni])s, and carry some good flocks of Shropshire sheep. With 
such a great variety of soils, the details of management must 
vary very much, but the general system has been given, and 
further details of local practices may be gathered from the fol- 
lowing account of a farm on Lord Hatherton's estate, which was 
enclosed from Cannock Chase in 1820. 
Mr. C. K. Keeling, of Yew-Tree Farm, near Penkridge, is a 
well-known breeder of Shropshire sheep. His farm consists of 
360 acres, 60 acres of which are very inferior turf. It is a poor 
light soil, full of large and small pebbles, which are thickly 
sown over the surface. The land was exceedingly wet, owing 
to percolation of the water from the higher level of the Chase, 
and its retention in " pockets " by pans of conglomerate lying 
sometimes near the suilace, and spreading over the farm in wide 
patches. It was drained 3 feet deep, 8 and 10 yards apart. 
Gravel, sand, iron, and black pebbles make a soil which must 
* The Staffordshire bushel holds 38 quarts. 
