The Winter 0/ 1885-86. 
407 
"9. Owing to the depressed state of trade, want of emiJoyment and low 
wages." 
Mr, George Roper (agent to the Earl of Lathom), Ormskirk, 
Lancashire : 
" 1. Soil generally a good loam, some with sand subsoil, and some with 
clay. 
" 2. Splendid weather for securing the hay, and good corn harvest, except 
the latter part. Winter severe and spring late. 
" 3 and 4. Root-crops good, except mangolds. Had more than could be 
consumed, and sold the surplus in April and May. 
" 5. Cut prickly comfrey in May, and am still using it. 
"6. Silage unchafled; very good, but little waste. Sheep were fed on it 
through the hard winter, and it was also given, mixed with hay,!to cattle. Both 
cattle and sheep are fond of it. 
" 7. None at all. 
" 9. Affected more by foreign beef and mutton and live animals than 
anything else. 
" 10. No surfeit of stock through scarcity of fodder. Winter keep plentiful. 
Fanners compelled to sell in order to realise money." 
Prof. J. P. Sheldon, Sheen, Ashborne, Derbyshire : 
" 1. Within what may be called the Peak Range of Derbyshire ; that is, in 
the hilly district, which is here for some distance found running through both 
counties, carboniferous limestone prevails, for the most part ; but on the 
Staffordshire side there is a good deal of igneous conglomerate, and in places 
freestone. The situation of my farm is some 700 feet above the sea-level ; 
the climate is severe in winter, but still invigorating and healthy ; the soil is 
for the most part a stifiish loam on a clay subsoil, and frequently on shale, or 
freestone subsoil. The land is all under permanent grass, and no cereals are 
grown in the district, save small areas of oats here and there. 
" 2. The summer, generally speaking, was a fairly good one for grass, 
following a cold, dry, and backward spring ; the autumn was a grassy one — 
fairly so, I mean, as the summer was ; the winter was severe, very long, very 
vicious at times in its intensity of cold, and the snow lay on the ground for 
about three months, greatly hindering farmers' out-door work. The year on 
the whole was worse than 1884, and the winter far worse than the previous 
one. The spring following it was dry and cold in April, giving farmers a 
good chance to pull up their work ; in May it was wet and cold, with one or 
two very severe storms. The winter of 1885-6 was the worst, in my experience, 
for farmers. 
" 3. Root crops are not much taken in this part of the country ; and on the 
neighbouring Derbyshire hills, the soil of which is sound and well adapted for 
turnips, the growth of roots is less than half of what it was some twentj' 
years ago. Root crops last year were only middling ; certainly not above an 
average, if even up to it. 
"4. Hay crops were fairly good, and there was a fair supply of straw ; many 
farmers, too, had stocks of old hay left over, but the old hayricks are much 
less numerous now than they were a year ago. Cattle and sheep are wintered 
generally on hay and straw, supplemented by a few roots, brewers' grains, and 
various sorts of purchased feeding-stuffs. For my part, I winter very little 
stock, being chiefly engaged in summer grazing. Hay this spring has been 
double the price it was three years ago. 
" 5. We don't trust to green crops in spring, save only to grass. 
" 6. Personally, I have no experience in the use of silage. I do not winter 
stock enough to make it worth my while to go in for it. A neighbour has 
