152 
Report on the Dairy and Stock-Farm 
Fences, gates, stiles, fields, ponds, are all in good order — fences^ 
where needing mending, are mended, quicks having been planted 
and properly protected ; and the cattle are first-rate. 
Mr. Thomas Lowe, of Higher Hall, within a mile of Malpas,. 
is highly commended for the very nice little farm of 87 acres — 
of which 39 are arable — which he holds, lying on a slope facing 
the south-west, with the public road running through the lower 
part of it, and the excellent house and premises on the upper 
level. Everything about the place is substantial and good^ 
especially the very good house and well-arranged homestead.. 
The rent is 220Z., or, with rates, land-tax, and tithes, 254Z. 8s. lid, 
per annum. The place is full of stock. There is a herd of 
remarkably good Shorthorn dairy cows, some of them as good 
as any that we saw. The land is well done, the grass-land full 
of keep, and the arable crops very satisfactory. Oats on our 
last visit promised a remarkably fine crop ; the clover was first- 
rate ; the small area of mangold-wurzel forward ; potatoes good ;. 
swedes late, having been resown, but at length promising a 
plant. The rotation followed is (1) oats ; (2) green cropping, 
viz. potatoes, mangold-wurzel, and swedes ; (3) oats, followed by 
one, or two, or three years' clover. Last year the cropping was : 
oats, 10|^ acres ; clover, 24 ; mangold-wurzel, 1 ; swedes, 3| ; 
potatoes, for home use, 1 rood. In addition to the mown clover, 
a certain quantity of the meadow land is also mown for hay» 
All the swedes and mangolds grown, and all the oats — in fact, 
the whole produce of the land, both arable and pasture — are 
consumed, and about 120Z. is spent on cake and India meal. 
The stock include 3 horses and a nag, 38 cows, 5 heifers 
calving at three years old, 42 pigs, besides calves. Everything 
is fattened ofT; 36 fat calves fetched 112/. 7s. 6(/. ; other fat 
cattle, 100/. 2s. Grf.; 31 fat pigs fetched 143/. 5s. last year, 
besides 4 fat hogs of 11 score each killed for use in the house ;, 
and 161J cwt. of cheese were sold at about 70s. per cwt. 
realising 571/. 19s. 2d. There were also 800 lbs. of butter sold 
in the year — about 20 lbs. a cow : no milk-butter is made : this 
represents only the skimmings of the whey. Five cows were 
purchased last year and 5 were sold, and the herd is thus to 
some extent kept up by purchase; but it is essentially a stock 
farm, and the quantity of stock per acre is as great, considering 
the smaller portion of artificial food that is purchased, as on 
any of the farms inspected. This is probably owing to the 
large proportion which is arable. Certainly 3 acres of clover, 
green crop, and oats, respectively, yielding such crops as we 
saw, are capable of maintaining a larger quantity of stock than 
3 acres of grass-land, good as that here is. About 16/. worth 
