390 
The Winter of 1%%^-%^. 
and judicious growth of crops is desirable ; if at the same time good judgment 
is exercised in the selection of live-stock, a better foundation for success will 
be laid. It is possible for a man who pays an ordinary rent for his arable 
land to make it worth several of these rents, and thus double or treble its 
fertility, without a corresponding outlay." 
Mr. A. Heasman, Littlehampton, Sussex : 
" 1. On the coast of West Sussex. The soil is a good medium substance, 
with brick-earth and subsoil dry, and sufficiently warm to carry stock during 
the winter months. 
" 2. The summer of 1885 was exceptionally dry ; the succulent crops on 
the arable land were completely burnt up, and in some cases the clover died 
in August for want of moisture. The plant of wheat on this land is thin 
and bad. 
" 3. The early sown swedes and mangolds were the best, and these were 
severely attacked by grub and vermin. The summer and autiman were unkind 
for roots, and white turnips were a great failure. 
" 4. My farm bein<j more than half pasture, my sheep were kept very 
much on grass, and folded on the stubble and land when the turnips failed, 
with a supply of hay at night ; the cattle were yarded at night. 
" 5. Drilled a quantity of rye when the turnips failed, which I found very 
useful in March. The sheep refused to eat hay with the rye, so I was obliged 
to substitute corn and cake. 
" 6. No experience. 
"7. A good yard and hovel for the lambing ewes is generally provided, 
and sometimes a dead fold ; nothing more is required. 
" 9. Partly in consequence of the failure in the root crop, together witb 
large foreign importations. 
" 10. 1 believe stock will do well on a much smaller quantity of roots thanj 
is generally given." 
Mr. R. A. Warren, Preston Place, Worthing, Sussex : 
"1. Between the South Downs and the sea, on the flat of alluvial rich 
loam, 
" 2. We had not the advantage of even a thunderstorm during the summer 
of 1885 on my farm. It was very dry. The past winter was not the severest 
I have known, but the longest and the latest. 
" 3. Less than half a crop. 
"4. We managed with the roots and hay which we had, but purchased 
more feeding stuft's than usual. 
" 5. No, but they were unusually backward. 
"6. No. » 
" 7. None, except at lambing time. No further required. 
" 9. Shortness of food and forced sales. 
"10. Such a season comes but rarely, and cannot be foretold, and a farmer 
cannot protect himself. He would be wrong not to farm for an average 
.>-eason, as before." 
No. 3 Division. 
Mr. A. P. Lloyd, Leaton Knolls, Shrewsbury, Shropshire: 
" 1. Chiefly cold clay, which has been laid down to grass. Medium 
climate ; less snow and rain than the midlands as a rule. 
" 2. Never saw the wheat and oats look better than in the summer of 1885, 
the land having at last got warmed after the disastrously wet seasons which 
had preceded them. There was a great quantity of Dutch white clovers. The 
