Tlie Winter 0/ 1885-86. 
3D1 
seed-time was good, and winter- wheat looks well. Land ploughed in aiitunm 
and early winter crumbled to pieces like a garden when worked in April. 
This, however, was spoiled by the late heavy rains. 
"3. Boots did well, the dry summer suiting the stiff laud. As a rule 
through Shropshire, especially on barley land, the turnip crop was very short. 
" 4. I made a silo which answered well, and kept my 12 Jersey cows ujion 
the silage some considerable period. It was, as the hay time was so good, 
composed of rubbish, such as sides of drives in the coverts, &c., which, how- 
ever, the cattle ate greedily. I used Waterloo round cake, McKinder's lamb 
food (excellent) for lambs, and treacle. 
" Yes ; sowed rye for sheep food and some winter tares, which were 
considerably retarded. 
" 6. Already given. Shall repeat the experiment. In a wet time for hay 
should consider it very useful. One field 1 put by for ensilage, but the 
weather being so tempting, I made it into hay. My silo is an old pit originally 
used for soaking or pickling timber. 
" 7. No shelter for sheep is used, nor does it ay)pear to be necessary in our 
district. Of course, ewes lambing had a shed and pens to run into, and were 
put up at night. 
" 9. By loreign competition ; also at intervals, such as at or near rent days 
and Christmas, and the practice fai mers have of sendinu; their fat stock in at the 
same time for the same purpose, which is well known to the. dealers and 
butchers, instead of dribbling them in and banking the money. I saw beef 
sold in Oswestry Christmas market at Ad. per lb. 
" 10. A good stock of hay for dairying cows, &c. A good stock of young 
cattle to come on. Orme is a dairying district, a greater growth of mangolds 
and more use made of cabbages, a wonderfully useful crop in my opinion 
for cold stiff soils. The tenant to stop at home instead of going to markets 
and fairs about three times per week, having nothing to sell or buy.'' 
Mr. John Hill, Felhampton Court, Church Stretton, Shrop- 
shire : 
" 1. In the valley between the Longmynd Hills and the Edge Road (a 
continuation of Wenlock Edge), 5 miles south of Church Stretton, on the 
Shrewsbury and Ludlow Road, South Shropshire. The soil is variable; some 
stiff clay, but chiefly mixed with gravel. The subsoil is bad, being a kind of 
stony brash, with clay cropping up here and there. There is no depth of soil, 
and the climate is late and backward. There is little chance of cleaning 
fallows after harvest, or of taking any catch-crops. 
" 2. A great flush of grass, and heavy crops of clover and hay. A partial 
failure of the root-crop, followed by one of the longest winters on record, and 
particularly trying to outlying stock. A backward spring, and a scarcity of 
fodder and roots. Cattle had to be turned out early, and the feeding-sheep 
sold in their wool. Spring-corn went in well, but the cultivation for the root 
crop was much delayed by the continual wet, and the most disastrous flood in 
the memory of man in this district. No losses of stock or crop on these farms, 
but a large proportion of the stock had to be brought up again for some days 
from the pastures. 
" 3. It was nearly a total failure, on one farm entirely so, excepting 3 acres 
of mangolds, and about 4 acres of swedes, out of a total acreage of 22 acres 
sown with roots. The fly took the swedes twice, and then they were attacked 
by a grub in the root. They either were eaten off entirely, or their growth 
was completely stopped ; the few that were left had no goodness in them. 
" 4. On one farm no roots were used in the yards ; the cattle being fed on 
long clover-hay, straw, hay, and chopped hay and straw, the calves and 
yearlings getting in addition from 2 to 3 lbs. of barley meal. The breeding 
