Contine7ital Farming. 
145 
After leaving- Dulsbcrg; we came through anotlier district of 
poor, light, sandy soil, all in tillage except a little meadow by the 
river-sides : the farms small but cleanly farmed ; the whole of 
the crops except clover wretchedly light, not over ten bushels 
per English acre of rye and twenty of oats, peas about sixteen 
bushels. About one-sixth of the land is clover, and another 
sixth peas, tares, and rapeseed ; there is fully two-thirds under 
Avhite crops, which upon such light soil is too much ; one-half 
would be more productive. 
Then we passed over a wretched, poor, wet moor ; the soil 
black sand upon a yellow sand subsoil. This is an excessively 
wet district, the water in general standing within a few inches 
of the surface. Wherever the water was more than a foot from 
the surface the land was cultivated, producing- miserable crops 
of rye, potatoes, oats, peas, and clover. 
A little further on the soil was wet clay, nearly all in poor 
pasture, upon which were grazing cattle and sheep of as unim- 
proved a description as the land tliey pastured on, many parts of 
which were being taken into cultivation, Avithout the first ele- 
ments of reclamation, drainar/e and enclosure. Wherever the 
water is kept off the surface by open furrows, the crops of wheat, 
beans, and clover looked tolerably healthy. 
Both of these districts, especially the latter, would pay well 
for thorough drainage and enclosure ; the drainage would be 
simple, as there is abundance of fall, the main watercourse 
only requiring to be opened up to the river, which I fear is pre- 
vented either by some old feudal right or the Avant of capital and 
the knowledge of drainage. It is grievous to see so much industry 
expended upon such a bad foundation. 
Enclosures now became frequent, Avith hedge-roAV timber fences 
of a rude description ; many patches of forest Avere seen and small 
farms, shoAving great poverty, Avhich is not the birthright of sucli 
industry. 
We next entered a forest of fine oak on the same Avet clay- 
loam soil ; then a district, same soil, one-half forest, one- 
fourth pasture, and one-fourth tillage, producing Avheat, rye, oats, 
beans, tares, rapeseed, barley, and clover ; a fair proportion of 
falloAV. On these AA'et pastures the herbage, though scanty, is sweet. 
Drainage is all that is required to make these districts treble 
their produce, but, as far as I have seen, it appears to be totally 
unknoAvn on the Continent. 
Vistula, the regular and effective demand for animal food, familiar Avith us, Avould 
soon work a revolution in the agricultural system ; and the vast tracts of land 
groAviug nothing hut rye, A>rith only a pa<ch of wheat here and there, might be 
to a_ considerable extent applied to wheat-growing, were it aided by the essential 
preliminary of a ready home-market for meat produce. — C. W, H. 
VOL. XVI. L 
