Farming of Dorsetshire. 
415 
The remarks with which a most competent authority, Mr. John 
Baveystock Knight, of A\"est Lodge, Piddletown, has favoured 
me, so completely describe this part of my subject, that I cannot 
do better than give them in that gentleman's words : — 
" Tliose iiieactows which are irrigated from waters having their springs or 
sources in the chaliv hills are tiic n)ost productive and vakiable, and the vales 
through which they descend are for the most part on warm subsoils, without 
clay. There are two classes of waters, of which advantage is taken to irrigate 
the meadows ti'aversed by them. The first is the waters of those rivers or 
streams which are permanent or fluent all the year; the other class is that of 
the Winterbournes, as they are provincially called, and which are dry from 
May or June until the following November. The best water meadows on the 
pci uiaiient streams arc those from Up Sydling to Grimstone, where the stream 
joins the Froine ; those from Cerne Abbas to Charniinster, where also the 
Cerne river joins the Frome ; those from Dulish to Athelhampton, where the 
stream joins the Piddle river, and again i'rom Alton Tancras through Piddlc- 
treniliido, Piddlehinton, VVatcrson, Piddletown, Athelhamjiton, Toljjiddle, 
x\tf|)id<lle, Bryantspiddle, Turnerspiddle, and Chamberlain Ford, to Ware- 
ham, where, on the conffuence of the Piddle and the Fiome, both rivers are 
lost in the estuary forming Lytchctt bay and Poole harbour. To these must 
be addeil the central and, as it may be termed, the main trunk line of the 
Frome river, which, first assuming that character at Rainpisham from its 
sources west of Evershot and Chelborough, i)asses Kingcombe and Wraxall, 
C'athstock, Chilfroine, Maiden Newton, Frome Vauchurch, Fram))ton, Grim- 
stone, Stratton, Bradford, Charniinster, Dorchestei-, Stafford, Woodslbrd, 
Moreton, Woodbridge, East Stoke, Holme, and VVareham. The best of these 
meadows commence about Maiden Newton, and from above that town on the 
brook descending from the Tollers; and it is obser\able that the quality, 
freshness, and jiroduce of these meadows, bear an exact ratio to the impregna- 
tion of water derivable from chalk sources. Thus the junction of the Toller 
stream at Maiden Newton improves the chari^ter of the water previously 
<lrained from the peaty and tnoory district about Ranipisham, above Maiden 
Newton. Receiving below Maiden Newton the ti'ibute of the Sydling and 
Cerne rivers, both of which have their sources at the foot of precipitous chalk 
hills, their value and goodness is still further augmented, until the maximum 
quality is attained from Frampton to Stafford, below Dorchester — a series of 
irrigated meadows probably not sur[)assed in any other county. It may not be 
irrelevant to notice the fact, which all experience has established, of the 
indication which the growth of trout in rivers affords of the quality of the 
water with reference to irrigation, fish of this species, the natural produce 
of Dorset streams in general, in chalk or soft water attaining a weight of 2, 
3, or even 5 and 6 lbs., w hen those of equal age in moory or stained waters, 
or that derived from clay sources, rarely exceed half a pound weight; but 
these ti'ansferred to a chalkstream soon attain equality of weight and condition 
with the natives. Not inferior in condition to the best Frome meadows are 
those of the Cerne, Sydling, Dulish, and Piddli! rivers; but the valleys being 
narrow, and the alluvial space contracted, they do not form so great a feature. 
Below Stafford, the valley of the Frome, as it widens, becomes more debased 
with large intermixtures of peaty or moorish soil in the meadows, which, 
though affording heavy burdens of hay, produce a coarse quality of produce 
more fitted for dairy cow stock : thus large dairies gradually take the place of 
the large sheep stocks for which the chalk hills on the upper region of this 
river were more congenial than the proximity of long tiacts of heath land, 
which, from Woodsford to Wareham on both sides, preclude the yet more exten- 
sive tracts of sterile heath extending to Poole and South Hants. 
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