Farming of Dorsetshire. 
439 
" Some fanners of large property did not scruple to assert that 
turnips were frequently better for not being hoed." " Many 
others preferred small turnips to large ones," and instances 
occurred " where the farmers preferred ploughing up a very 
weedy crop and sowing the land anew rather than go to the 
expense of hoeing it." If crops wanted thinning, " heavy harrows 
or drags were applied in various directions till the crop was thin 
enough." A scarifier is mentioned as not Ijeing entirely a rarity 
because there was " a sort of scuffler" to keep it company. If 
a chaff-cutter cut the straw " so regularly and perfectly as to 
require no sifting," it was noted for its " rare merit." The 
farmers were unwilling " to adopt and persevere in those prac- 
tices and the use of those agricultural implements " which others 
had found to answer. It was not to be wondered at, after all 
this, that the land of the county in general was " not well 
wrought," or that there were " very large tracts of foul land." 
Tiie downs occupied "a large portion of the county." Cranborne 
Chase was " a free warren, principally consisting of hazel wood." 
There were " many mud-walled cottages composed of road 
scrapings and chalk and straw." There were no clubs for the 
labourer, and no agricultural societies for his employer. How 
material an improvement has been effected in most of these 
things the reader will have collected from what has been already 
Avritten. We need hardly say, except in the way of recapitula- 
tion, that the use of the !ioe, the drill, the scarifier, and indeed 
of almos* every improved agricultural machine, is now as general 
in Dorset as it was then singular ; that three corn crops and a 
fallow have given place to the Norfolk system, which has been 
abandoned only for a better ; that turnips are now sown without 
fear of larceny (excepting on the part of four-footed delinquents), 
are found all the better for the hoe, are grown as large as possible, 
and are fed off in preference to being " ploughed up ;" that the 
downs have been broken up ; and that instead of unwillingness 
on the part of the farmers to adopt improved agricultural imple- 
ments, no meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society passes off 
without the presence of a goodly proportion of Dorsetshire 
farmers. There are some other improvements which must be 
noticed more in detail. Among them are the Enolosures of Waste 
Lands, the erection of Cottages, the establishment of Farmers' 
Clubs, and of various i\gritultural Societies, the formation of 
a County Friendly Society, and of a Labourers' Friend Society, 
and the extinction of the deer in Cranborne Chase. 
The enclosiwe of icaste lanils has been in active operation 
during the present century. Some trouble has been taken to 
ascertain if possible the exac t number of acres that have been 
enclosed, but the county records in the ofnce of the clerk of the 
