414 
Farming of Dorsetshire. 
(Houghton), and that the only seeds drilled in the parish last 
year were oats and barley. Wheat, when sown broad-cast on 
liijht soils, has the land-presser or the fold driven across it. At 
Wimborne and Cranborne, Whitchurch and many parts of tlie 
vale of Blackmoor, wheat has been sown broad-cast and ploughed 
in ; and at Monckton, Mr. Henry Fookes has grown some very 
good barley, got in in this fashion, which is favoured most on 
unkindly soils, in wet seasons, when the drill will not work 
freely. Wlieat is got in in this manner at Bere, where there are 
a good many small holders of land, and the custom is for the 
farmer to feed off the turnips, and, in return, to get in the wheat, 
finding thatch for the next harvest. Tlie advantages which the 
drill offers in the saving of seed, and in the opportunity of 
cleaning the crop, are not lost sight of ; and there is no doubt 
that it will be adopted by many who now advocate broad- 
casting. The flail is used for threshing out clover seed where 
no mills exist ; but at Clifton, near Sherborne, Mr. James Vin- 
cent has erected a clover mill, which has been found a great 
convenience to parties who formerly sent their clover seed into 
East Somerset to be milled. 
The coppices form no inconsiderable feature of the countv. 
The system of management pursued is to cut the wood at periods 
varying from ten to fourteen years, according to the quality and 
growth of the Avood. In some parts they give rise to a regular 
trade, and afford work for a class of men for three-fourths of the 
year, the rest of their time being occupied in turnip hoeing. 
After cutting, the wood is sorted into various qualities, the 
best being used for hurdles, and the inferior going in sale 
faggots, bush faggots, and nichecs, or small faggots used to light 
fires. In Cranborne Cliase, before it was disforested, the woods 
came into cutting after twenty years' growth ; now they are 
cut after eight or ten years ; but many woods, which used to pay 
14s. or 20s. an acre, now pay, some 10s., and some not more 
than 6s. per acre per annum. Many of them might profitably 
be turned to arable, and in some parts of the Chase this is being 
done to a considerable extent. White-thorn fences grow kindly 
in most of the hill districts, indicating a good soil for m.alting 
barley. 
To this district belong the water-meadows, which for years 
have been a celebrated feature in the agriculture of the county. 
In Mr. Claridge's ' General View ' of it, he declares that at that 
time " the proportion of water-meadows was nowhere so great, 
nor anywhere better managed." And although the growth of 
roots and artificials has rendered irrigated meads less necessary 
(not less acceptable) in sheep husbandry, the encomium which 
was passed upon them sixty years ago may be repeated now. 
