296 
Tlie Agricitlture of Staffordshire. 
On Lord Lichfield's estates surrounding Ranton Abbey, and 
on his lordship's Acton and Baswich and Dunstan estates, near 
Shugborough, there are forty-five small holders of land, with 
comfortable cottage-houses, and cowhouse, pigstye, &c., suitable 
to the land they hold. They are let to the most industrious and 
well-conducted agricultural labourers as a reward, and as an 
inducement for others of this class to pursue such a course of 
conduct as would lead landowners to select them for occupa- 
tions. The land is well cultivated and productive ; the houses, 
gardens, and premises neatly kept. The conditions on which 
the occupations are held require good conduct and good manage- 
ment. The quantity of land in these holdings is from four acres 
to seven acres. In a small village on this estate, which I passed 
through, there were four of these occupations — four detached 
picturesque cottages in luxuriant gardens, with the cowhouse and 
out-ofiices behind, and the pasture and tillage land adjoining. 
The small meadow which each had was irrigated by a stream at 
a short distance. The extent of land on three of these occupations 
was about seven acres, where two cows were kept ; on one of 
four acres, one cow is kept ; about one acre of tillage-land is 
allotted to each. At least half the tillage-land each year is in 
green crop, and the remainder in corn crop. The green crops 
are first rye and winter vetches, sown early in the autumn, and 
cut green for cows before the pasture is ready, and as they are 
consumed potatoes are set. The corn crop supplies wheat for 
household consumption, or barley for pig food, and the straw 
litter and manure. These four cottage-landholders regularly work 
with farmers near ; two are waggoners and two labourers, and 
have been trustworthy and skilful farm-servants. When necessary, 
these tenants obtain a little hired assistance to put in or get off 
their crops, or their employers spare them four or fiive days in 
the season for this purpose, and sometimes give a little aid. 
EivERs, Streams, and Iekigation. 
Staffordshire is remarkably well watered ; its hills are the source 
of numberless springs and rivulets, whose waters are used to a 
considerable extent for irrigation. Cloud, Mow Cop, and the 
other boundary heights, which are precipitous on the Cheshire 
side, slope towards the valleys in that elevated part of Stafford- 
shire ; and the direction of these slopes and valleys brings the 
water into this county. In the " Biddulph Trough," or rather in 
an adjoining offshoot, the Trent takes its rise. A tributary of 
the Churnet rises near, and the watershed which divides them is 
so narrow that the two streams may be seen running away from 
each other. Every " trough," or little valley, in this Staffordshire 
