Dairy and Stock Farms. 
511 
and the tenant by which the former has it in his power, 
whenever he may choose, to enforce the four-field rotation ; but, 
practically, the tenant has unrestricted liberty of cultivation. 
He has himself laid down to grass many of the lower fields 
(112 acres in all) of this generally level land which are most 
liable to inundation, and they will remain permanently in grass ; 
but the usual practice has been to keep the land laid down in 
grass for two or three years. Twelve lbs. of Italian rye-grass, 
4 of red clover, and 2 each of alsike and white clovers and trefoil, 
are sown per acre. Nearly all the farm-manure, estimated at 
1200 tons, is put on the young grass-seeds early in the autumn, 
some being retained for the mangolds and potatoes. The crop 
is mown the first year, and in the second nothing can exceed 
the abundance and excellence of its produce, as we saw it in 
July — a perfect carpet of white clover and alsike. When 
ploughed up, it is followed by either oats or beans, and these by 
wheat, after which a green crop is taken — some 40 acres, half 
mangolds, and the rest potatoes or swedes. These are followed 
by wheat, with seeds sown down again among it. All the root- 
crops receive, at a cost of 45s. per acre, about 6 cwts. of Proctor 
and Ryland's special bone manures, part applied when the land 
is ridged, the remainder after the turnips or mangolds are 
singled. The mangolds receive in addition 10 to 15 loads of dung 
in the ridges. Of 300 acres of arable land this year, there are 
thus about 80 in wheat, 20 in oats, 20 in beans, 40 in green 
crops, and 140 in grass of various years. The wheat, chiefly 
Nursery, with some Golden Drop, has been this year a great 
crop ; the oats and beans not quite so good. The potatoes 
(Skerry Blues and Paterson's Victorias) looked admirable in 
July, when there was a great promise of both mangolds and 
swedes. The two-year-old grass was quite remarkable for its 
excellence ; and a fair crop of clover was being made into hay. 
In December we had seen the stalls and sheds and yards 
full of fatting beasts, besides calves and yearlings. In May, a 
month before the annual sale, we saw most of them ready for 
the butcher. The annual sale of 70 or 80 fat beasts, and 200 to 
250 sheep and lambs, realising (with wool) from 2600/. to 3000/., 
is the event to which the whole year's management leads up. 
This, and the produce of 70 or 80 acres of wheat, and a certain 
sale of straw and hay, if after the sale any remains — together 
with certain receipts from potato-growing and from horse- 
breeding — make up the annual returns from the farm. The 
outlay, besides a heavy rent, and nearly as much spent in labour, 
and 600Z. to 800/. spent in cattle-food and manure, includes 
also the sum spent in the purchase of young stock and of 
sheep. 
