in Northumherland and Durham in 1887. 
659 
kindness was so general that it would be invidious to 
particularise. Everywhere they were made to feel that they 
were welcome, and there was a general disposition to give the 
information required, and to facilitate the work of the Judges 
as much as possible. 
Reviewing the Agriculture of these two counties, as ex- 
emplified by the competing farms, there is much to admire. 
There is abundant evidence of the employment of capital and 
skill, with a very inadequate reward. If agricultural depression 
has not been as severely felt here as in some other counties, it 
has left its mark, and if the present prices of Beef and Mutton 
should continue, it is to be feared that worse times are yet to 
come for the breeders of Sheep. Those who farm near to large 
towns may hope to find an increasing demand for many things 
in the production of which the farmers of more remote districts 
cannot compete with them. The latter must continue to rely 
on the production of corn or meat or store stock, and in none 
of these lines is the prospect very bright or promising. 
It may seem strange, after saying this, to recommend the 
increased breeding of Cattle. Nevertheless there is throughout 
the whole country such a scarcity of well-bred store cattle that 
they command prices out of all proportion to the value of meat. 
There must be plenty of land in Northumberland suitable for 
the breeding and rearing of young cattle and now occupied by 
inferior Irish stock. Nothing surprised the writer so much as 
the second-rate character of the greater number of the cattle 
which came under notice. We were told that the farmers would 
gladly buy better animals, but they found them so dear, and 
they could make the most profit out of young Irish steers. 
These are bought at low prices, pushed on quickly, and sent off 
to market, when a Norfolk or Lincolnshire farmer would think 
them about fit to be put into the feeding stall. 
Of late years there has everywhere been a great extension of 
an old system of laying down land to grass for three or more 
years instead of one year. The objects in view are to decrease 
expenses, and particularly the cost of labour, and to give the 
land time and opportunity to recover fertility. In Northum- 
berland this system appears to have been frequently carried to 
an extreme. Land is kept in ley until it produces little or 
nothing, and then ploughed out. It has been laid for too long 
or too short a period ; too long for the grasses sown — too short a 
time for it to store up fertility. On the other hand, land which 
has been pastured and manured for eight or nine years, until it 
has got a good face upon it and the critical time is past, is 
broken up because it has become good enough to grow a crop 
of corn. 
VOL. XXIII,— s. S, 2 X 
