424 
Fcirining of Dorsetshire. 
cutUe-sliows move prizes than probably any other breoacr in the 
county. 
The produce of wheat throughout the county, taking the 
average of the last 5 years, is estimated by a competent judge at 
7 sacks an acre, the greatest amount being grown upon the chalk. 
This estimate is supposed to be rather under wliat the yield might 
]>e considered by many to be, and another estimate says wheat 
30, barley 38, oats 50 l)ushcls per acre. A well-authenticated 
case is told of 15 sacks of wheat per acre being once grown by one 
of the best farmers in the county. Almost all the corn grown in 
Dorset is sold at the local markets. Before the failure of the 
potatoes a good deal of it was sent to Cornwall and sold in the 
mining districts, and flour is still sent there from Poole and 
other places, where it is largely manufactured. Dorset has 
changed from an exporting to an importing county. The ex- 
ports coastwise were considerable ; now large import trades are 
carried on with the Baltic and the Black Sea, the latter trade 
being of the most recent origin. Mr. Robert Damen, a consider- 
able corn-dealer, imported within a month, this autumn, GOOO 
quarters from the Black Sea into the porfs of Poole, Weymouth, 
and Bridport. A still larger quantity is imported from the 
Baltic. Nine-tenths of the wheat grown in Dorset is red. The 
farmers are using more seed-wheat from other counties than 
formerly, and they exchange seed-barley after growing for two 
years. A good deal of red clover-seed is saved, and in the lower 
parts of the county it is becoming quite an important article of 
production. The average growth of this seed is put at 2 cwt. per 
acre, but double that quantity has been saved by some. It 
realizes about 40s. In the chalk district hop clover-seed is saved 
to some extent. Trifolium incarnatum flourishes in the sandy 
soils at the v/estern end of the county in a most remarkable man- 
ner. At Netherbury they get 5 or 6 loads to the acre. In 
Broadwinsor they cut it for horses all through the summer, and 
find it most valualjle. On the chalk it has been tried by one of 
the best farmers without success. 
Indigenous liops are often found in old fences, and, it is re- 
marked, quite free of mildew, lice, cScc, which are found so 
pestiferous in cultivated ground. A gentleman now deceased, 
JVIr. Mowlam, cultivated for some years hops on a field of his at 
Mil bourne St. Andrews, and it is thought profitably; but the 
estate being sold at his death, the experiment ceased. The pre- 
valence of indigenous hops in Dorset indicates a congenial soil 
for them, but whether to advantage is a question. 
Wherever gorse or furze grows on the old pasture, profitable 
barley and turnip land is indicated. Elm-trees growing kindly 
