Agricultural Capabilities of the New Forest. 263 
Common, over which many and many a time 1 have met the 
winter's blast and the summer's heat, in either case intensified 
by the arid and dreary character of the district, and I have the 
opportunity of testifying from many sources the very great satis- 
faction which has followed the successful exfertions of the valuer, 
Mr. Richard Wooldridge, of Titchfield, in bringing it into cul- 
tivation, and from whom the following brief communication will 
be read with interest : — 
" Titchfield Commmi, county of Southampton. — This common waste of the 
manors of Titchfield and Swanwick, extent 1200 acres, was awarded under the 
' Enclosure Acts' in 1866. As vaha-r 1 was fortunately able toefl'ect an agree- 
ment between the Lords of the Manors and the copyholders that the land 
should bo allotted as of freehold tenure ; it would otherwise have been coj^y- 
hold, subject to arbitrary fines and other manorial rights, most discouraging to 
liberal outlay of the requisite capital to bring the land under proper cultivation 
as agricultural property — but this difficulty removed, a large proportion of the 
laud has become productive and valuable arable. The soil consists of a small 
proportion of dry gravel surface and substratum, but more generally loam and 
clay, more or less mixed with gravel resting on retentive substrata, generally 
requiring drainage and in every jiart the application of marl or chalk. As a 
rule, the land requires subsoiling by hand-trenching or double-]iloughing to 
break through a hard concreted band, locally called the pan, lying usually 
from nine to eighteen inches under the surface. These operations cost from 
151. to 251. per acre, less the first and second crops, say turnips or potatoes, and 
oats. The effectual performance of these first acts of tillage is, in my opinion, 
the most economical as well as the best management. If the land is intended 
for pasturage, it requires cultivation some few years with vegetable crops 
previous to laying down, to ensure the growth and destruction of the seeds of 
indigenous plants. I have felt great interest in the work of reclaiming this 
waste, and you may infer that 1 attach much importance to the addition thus 
quietly made to our national wealth and civilization. It is particularly ]ileasing 
to see the space of the dreary old common dotted here and there with neat free- 
hold cottaues and well-managed gardens, each occupied by the owner, who, 
although perhaps not entirely free of borrowed means, is making his way 
surely to independence and comfort unknown to him before this local property 
had existence." 
Mr. James Withers, the writer of the following short com- 
munication, in reply to some questions put to him, is a practical 
and experienced agriculturist, who, although he has farmed for 
some years on the other side of the Southampton Water, is well 
acquainted with the Forest, and for some years lived and farmed 
on its borders : — 
*' I consider that three-fourths of the Forest would pay for breaking up for 
tillage and pasture, and the poorest part will pay for planting, if properly 
treated. It should be trenched two feet deep, and if wet, made dry by open 
drains. I think every town and village should have in its immediate neigh- 
bourhood a portion of the land set apart for recreation and pasturage, and that 
the best sites in the Forest should be set apart for residential purposes and 
gradually brought into the market." 
In reply to the question as to whether he is aware of land of 
similar quality being brought under cultivation successfully, he 
