On Converting Cold Clay Arable Land, &,-c. 487 
it lias been difficult to obtain and house all the men and horses 
needed to supplement its work. The manual labour required 
has been fully equal to the local supply. Had it been greater, 
the consequent rise in wages might have been so sudden and so 
great as to have had a demoralising instead of a beneficial effect 
upon the population. 
As it is, these costly works, following as they do upon other 
great improvements carried out by the present owner and his 
father, have already contributed to the social and domestic 
welfare of a people who, from the absence of trade and manufac- 
tures, and from the mineral and agricultural poverty of the land, 
must ever be largely dependent for their prosperity upon the 
action of the proprietor. The stone-built and tiled or slated 
cottages which have everywhere replaced, or are rapidly replacing, 
the turf hovels described by Mr. Loch, contrast most favourably 
at the present time with the houses of the peasantry in counties 
more favoured by nature, and prove that the Duke and his pre- 
decessors have nobly met the great responsibilities and duties 
of their position. 
XVII. — The Advantage of converting Cold Clay Arable Land into 
Permanent Pasture, and the best Method of doing it. By W. 
T. CarrinGTON, of Croxden Abbey, Uttoxeter. 
A SUBJECT of pressing importance at the present time to many 
landowners and occupiers is how to deal with poor clay arable 
land in a damp climate, so as to render it what it at present 
is not, — profitable for occupation. 
jNIost occupiers of farms consisting largely of such land find 
their capital yearly decreasing, and in the numerous cases in 
which such farms become vacant, the owners find great dif- 
ficulty in reletting them. It is undoubtedly true that from the 
operation of a variety of causes, — especially the low price of 
corn, due to an immense foreign import, the increased cost 
of both horse and manual labour, and a series of seasons 
specially unfavourable for the yield of corn and for the cultiva- 
tion of wet clay soils, — much of the clay land in those parts of 
England, where the climate does not favour a heavy yield of 
corn, has not paid the expenses of cultivation.* With the excep- 
tion of the character of the seasons (in which some improve- 
ment may be hoped for), the other causes may be expected to 
* Since this paper was written, the season of 1879 has proved the most disas- 
trous of the series to the occupiers of cold clay arable farms. 
