in NoitinghamsJiire, Lincolnshire, &c. : Glasses 2 and 3. 39 
is for the most part dry, and is lieavy working land. Fi-om 
Strettou, north to and including Matlock, six miles distant, the 
surface is hilly. There is friable soil on the hills and in part of 
the district toward the eastern boundary of the county ; but in 
the valleys it is heavy and stiff, on a clay subsoil. Young plants 
have there often a hard struggle for existence, and make little 
progress in spring till the weather becomes genial, and they get 
hold of the manure in the soil. This is especially apparent iu 
the case of the root-crop, it being difficult to get a plant on such 
heavy land. 
Portions of the land have been greatly improved by draining, 
and in the neighbourhood of Alfreton lieavy crops of Italian rye- 
grass now wave over land which was previously sour and unpro- 
ductive. Early ideas with regard to draining have been some- 
what modified, and the drains, instead of being put 0 yards 
apart, are now not more than 6 j^ards apart, with 2- or 3-inch 
pipes, 30 inches deep. Three to four inches of stone are first 
laid over the tiles, a little sti'aw or brushwood above the stones, 
then clay and soil on the top. Most of the draining had been 
completed previous to 1880, but where it had not been finished 
it has been still carried on. During the past two years there 
has been a revival of improvements on the land, more lime is 
used, and farmers seem to be awakening from the feeling of 
despondency that prevailed during the first years of agricultural 
depression. 
Acreage under various descriptions of Crops. — In the Agricul- 
tural Returns issued by the Board of Trade, Derbyshire is classed 
among the 21 pastoral counties — that is, a county in which the 
acreage under permanent pasture is two-thirds more than the 
acreage under corn crops. In 1888, there were 404,512 acres 
in j^ermanent grass for hay or pasture, and for many years there 
had been a gradual increase. The extent was 391,776 acres in 
1881 ; but in the fourteen years beginning with 1867 there had 
beeii a total addition of 67,000 acres to the permanent pasture 
of the county (Journal, Vol. XVII. [1881], p. 460). In the six 
years ending with June 1887 there had been a further addition 
of 13,733, making a total of 80,733 acres in 20 years ; but the 
limit of extension seems to have been reached in 1886, as a 
reduction of 1,705 acres was indicated in the year following ; and 
again in 1888 there was a reduction of 997 acres. 
A feature in connection with grain-crops has been a con- 
tinuous contraction of the area under wheat, and an extension 
of that under oats. In 1888, the total acreage under all kinds 
of crops, bare fallow, and grass, was 51 1,541 acres, compared with 
512,336 in 1881, a change of only 793 acres in six years. The 
