618 = 352 Practical Agriculture. 
Sometimes cabbages are set in November after the seconi 
crop, the land being manured for them ; and after the cabbage 
are removed trenching follows, with another crop of potatoes 
Manchester and Liverpool take the produce, and return manur 
for forcing more. Cheshire is celebrated for its dairj-farmin 
and its boning of pastures, which are referred to in other poi 
tions of this Memoir. 
Lancashire. In La7icashire are found some of the most striking instances c 
the productiveness of husbandry, where large consuming centre 
of population are within easy reach — or rather, where th 
occupiers enjoy freedom of cropping, with liberty to sell o 
straw and hay in consideration of manure being purchased i 
return ; for railways, intersecting all parts of England, do no^ 
practically place more distant farms in the same favourabl 
position as those suburban holdings, while they have somewh; 
easier rents. I cannot do better than refer to some of th 
particulars given in Mr. Samuel D. Shirriff's Report on Pri? 
Farms near Liverpool (in the Royal Agricultural Society 
' Journal,' Part L, of the present year). Mr. Shirriff well observe 
that " there is no more expensive system of making manui 
than by compelling a farmer to utilise all his straw at homi 
The expense of making the straw fit for application to the Ian 
Selling straw is enormous. In outlying districts, far away from railways, 
and hay. primitive system of agriculture may profitably exist, but onl 
under a correspondingly low rent. The success of the farme: 
around Liverpool cannot be attributed to low rents. The Ian 
is rented at its full value." Their principal revenue in th; 
rainy and growing locality depends upon sales of hay ar 
straw ; they apply enormous quantities of purchased manun 
they spend over 3/. per acre in manual labour, a man's wagi 
(where board is not found) being about 21s. per week ; tl 
tenant himself is accustomed to work much harder than h 
labourers, and these work well for long days and fairly earn the 
money. On Mrs. Birch's first-prize farm of 242 acres of bla( 
soil on sand and peaty loam, the rotation is, (1) roots, (2) whe 
or barley, (3) barley or oats, (4) seeds, which Jie two yea 
and sometimes three. The usual practice is to take oats aft 
the grass, and then beans ; but this has been reversed with gre 
Seeds. success. The mixture of seeds sown consists of 7 lbs. n 
clover, 4 lbs. alsike, 1 lb. rib-grass, 2 lbs. white clover, 
15 lbs. in all, per acre ; with half a bushel of perennial ai 
half a bushel of Italian ryegrass. Mr. Shirriff names as t 
mixture of the district, red, white, alsike and cowgrass clovt 
with a small percentage of rib-grass, dogstail, Timotliy, cocl- 
foot, and trefoil, at the rate of about 18 lbs. per acre ; with h; 
a bushel of Italian and half a bushel of perennial ryegrass. 1 
