304 
The Agriculture of Staffordshire. 
farmer uses, and he substitutes for them, both in the case of 
sheep and horned stock, a large quantity of dry food, such as 
straw-chaff, brewers' grains, malt-dust, oilcake, and meal, with 
which he makes a suitable mixture. 
Mr. T. D, Botteley, of Tixall Heath, near Stafford, informs me 
that last winter he cut up from 70 to SO tons of straw, with 25 tons 
of hay ; and this food, mixed v^ith Ijoiled corn and oilcake, fattened 
40 beasts and 200 sheep, besides wintering 50 store oxen and 300 
sheep, with the aid of only 7 acres of mangold, 16 acres of 
middling swedes, and a few stubble turnips. 
The machinery and the necessary store-rooms and mixing- 
houses occupy an important part of the farmstead in Stafford- 
shire ; the amount of barn-room required is not great. The 
buildings are generally of bricks, which are good and cheap, 
2O5. a thousand. Stone, though plentiful, is costly to work, and 
timber is not allowed to occupy much space in rich grass 
districts. 
There are very few covered yards, Avhich are undesirable in 
the rearing of cattle, for sanitary reasons, obvious to those who 
know that direct sunlight as well as pure air are necessary for 
young animals. Mr. Bass has a covered homestead at the 
Deanery Farm, in Needwood Forest, where he fattens a number 
of famous Galloways, and makes manure which has no doubt 
been a principal agent in doubling the value of his land to rent, 
a feat which has actually been performed in a few years. 
Colonel Inge has erected a wonderful range of farm buildings 
at Thorpe Hall, which are remarkable for a great outlay without 
any ostentation, and for the convenience and utility of all the 
arrangements. The internal fittings and contrivances are singu- 
larly ingenious. The poultry reside, not in a house, but in a 
palace, or Alhambra, with the great improvement for our climate 
of a glass roof over the court where the fountain plays ; a horn 
calls the birds to meat. They roost and nest in great state, and 
a very ingenious zinc guard protects them from feline enemies. 
I must mention the underground passage for pigs, by which they 
pass to their pastures and promenades without the inconvenience 
of crossing an approach road. The courts for lambing, the 
paved dipping pens for sheep, the residence for rams, and the ad- 
joining harem, are all superb. In the midst of an assemblage of 
buildings, too numerous to mention, is an amateur farmhouse 
where the servants employed on the farm and in the dairy are 
quartered. An extensive cellarage and larder supply their daily 
mess ; a wing of the house is appropriated to each sex, and here, 
if nowhere else, the young labourer can live in comfort, though 
single. The discipline, so necessary where the number is large, 
is well preserved ; and the Colonel's arrangements are perfect. 
