Dairy and Stock Farms. 
501 
sell hay and straw and roots ; do, in fact, whatever I've a mind 
to." In general, the two or three fields upon these dairy farms 
which had been grass immemorially were not within this liberty 
of the tenant. But the greater part of those dairy farms which 
we saw is not of this old grass, but of grass which has been laid 
down by the tenant, and remains unbroken for six, eight, or ten 
years, as he chooses. In some cases, however, no restriction 
whatever was put upon the cultivator ; and the effect of this 
liberty in those instances which have come under our notice has 
been to quicken the whole management, keeping the tenant 
alive to the possibilities of profit in every direction — alive, above 
all, to the necessity of maintaining his land in the highest state 
of cleanliness and cultivation, in order to realise the greatest 
possible profit from the liberty thus given to him on his gene- 
rally small occupation. 
Take the case of Mr. J. Owen's farm, near Halewood, for ex- 
ample, in the class of dairy and stock farms between 100 and 
200 acres — the size which represents the ordinary run of 
Cheshire dairy farms. This farm of 160 acres is held under 
two landlords, partly on lease and partly at will. What the 
conditions of the lease are we were not told ; there is not a field 
on the place, however, we were assured, but the tenant can do with 
it and with its produce whatever he may choose. With full 
liberty to sell, and the best market in the world for agricultural 
produce of all kinds close by, the temptation — " to beggar the 
land ? " — no, to maintain it in the highest possible condition, 
is irresistible ; and accordingly we found heavy crops of clover, 
oats, and wheat, promising crops of roots and potatoes, and 
well-stocked grass fields — all clean and full of produce. The 
hay-making had been stopped by rain, but a very heavy crop 
was all carefully cocked and ready to be carried, finding its 
way ultimately to Liverpool. The heavy oat and wheat crops, 
too, showed the capital condition of the land — and here, also, 
nearly all the straw and most of the grain would find its way to 
market. Four hundred tons of stable-dung, brought from Liver- 
pool, and some 200 cwts. of nitrate of soda, and 300/. worth of 
bought and home-grown food consumed upon the land by stock, 
which is bought wherever cheap enough and sold whenever fit : — 
These are the guarantees of permanent fertility. And this is the 
style of agriculture, at once prosperous and productive, which 
here comes of liberty accorded to an energetic money-making 
market-man, who knows practically the management of land 
and crops and live-stock on the soils and under the skies of 
Cheshire and South Lancashire. Other farms in his class were 
considered tp come more perfectly, and with equally profitable 
results, within the conditions by which the Judges were in- 
