434 
Farming of Dorsetshire. 
a year spent in the county for artificial manures ; and it must 
not be overlooked that Barton manure is made in very large 
quantities ; that pig-feeding is largely pursued ; and that con- 
siderable numbers of sheep are kept upon the land and fed on 
swedes to enrich it for wheat. \ery large quantities of oil-cake, 
too, are used in fatting beasts ; and lentils and Egyptian beans 
are purchased to a great extent for pig-feeding. Oil-cake is 
mostly obtained from Southampton ; and the increased con- 
sumption of it is shown in the following figures, of one firm : — 
Tons. Cwts. £ 
Aug:. 1, 1850, to Aug. 1, 1851 .. .. 304 7 2425 
\, 1851 „ 1852 .. .. 466 13 3732 
,, 1852 ,, 1853 .. .. 564 7 4944 
,, 1853, to Nov. 12 2C0 0 1913 
Nitrate of soda is partially used as a top-dressing ; but one of 
the best farmers having overdone the dressing, others have been 
discouraged from its use. It is by many regarded as an im- 
poverisher of tlie land for the succeeding crop, and the opposite 
virtues of guano are used as arguments against it. Mr. Far- 
quharson, 15 years ago, applied 115 lbs. to the acre on wheat, 
and he estimates his produce at 6 bushels more per acre on that 
than on former occasions. He has grown as many as 14 sacks 
to the acre by the application of saltpetre. 
The great Imlk of the portable manures is used on the turnip 
crop, but the (lover-leys get a good dressing of farm-yard manure 
when in preparation for Avlieat. Bones at one time were used on 
the pastures, but tliat app!i( ation of them (a most useful one) 
has been discontinued, because it is found that only in peculiar 
soils is it at all useful to apply bones to grass land. In Cheshire 
it is found valual)le ; in the greater part of Dorsetshire it is of 
no value. Lord Portman I as fried l)ones on various soils, and 
has given up the practice on grass land. 
Climate. — The materials for accurately determining the con- 
dition of th.e climate of Dorset are not by any means abundant, 
although attention was particularly called to the subject by Mr. 
Stevenson, who pointed out that great service would undoubtedly 
result from a regular and long-continued register of the weather. 
Walter Parry Okeden, Esq., has, with commendable perseverance, 
kept a register of temperature at Turnworth pretty regularly 
since 1845, and a rain-gauge has been kept for tlie last two years 
at West Lodge, by Mrs. Wyndliam ; but a complete congeries of 
meteorological observations is wanting. I am, however, enabled, 
by tlie kind courtesy of the eminent meteorologist Mr. Glaisher, 
to add to this report his meteorological values for the county ol 
Dorset. Thc^y are founded on observations made in adjoining 
counties ; but iiy the method adojited by Mr. Glaisher, he is 
enabled to compute the values very clcisely. 
