448 
Farming of Dorsetshire, 
compensation to tenants for unexhausted improvements, extend- 
ing in the case of liming to the seventh year, and in the case of 
draining to the eighth year. These liberal arrangements have 
given great satisfaction to the tenantry. Lord Portman has 
granted his tenants very long leases, half the rent being fixed at 
a money price, and the other half regulated bv tlie price of 
liarley and wheat, taken on the average of the kingdom as re- 
turned by the London Gazette. Lord Orford adopted the prin- 
ciple of corn rents some short time since, but has now aban- 
doned it. 
In farm-buildings some of the most spirited landowners have 
expended very large sums. " If," said a practical farmer with 
whom I conversed on this point, " the good example of a few land- 
owners. Lord Portman, Lord Rivers, Mr. Stint, Lord West- 
minster, &c., was generally followed, and landlords erected good 
buildings and granted long leases, every other improvement 
would follow, and you would see no bad farming." The Duke 
of Bedford has erected a most commodious set of farm-buildings 
at Kingston Russell, of which I am enabled, tlirough the kind- 
ness of Mr. Henry Barnes, the architect, to give the plan. 
The use of steam power is another feature of improvement to 
be noted. Upon less than 500 acres (upon two farms) the Rev. 
A. Huxtable has two steam-engines ; Lord Portman has one, 
so has Mr. Sturt, so has Mr. Farquharson, so has Lord Rivers ; 
Mr. Putter has one at Winterborne Came, Mr. Rossiter one at 
Critchell, Mr. Monckton one at Sutton, Mr. Ford one at Rush- 
ton, Mr. Burdge one at Forston ; Mr, Harvey at Hemswortli 
and Mr. Mitchell at Deane's Lodge have one ; and there are 
three or four portable steam thrashing-machines used in the 
county. 
The extinction of the deer in Cranborne Chase is the crowning 
improvement since Stevenson's Report. The Cranborne Chase 
Award (1828) recites that " the number of deer ranging over the 
property of the different proprietors of land within the limits of 
the chase amounts to upwards of tivelve tlioiLsand ! and is a great 
hindrance to the cultivation of such lands, tending greatly to 
demoralise the habits of the labouring classes." It is reckoned 
that no fewer than 14 parishes in Dorset — Handley, Farnham, 
Chettle, Ashmoor, Melbury, Fontmell, Sutton, Iwcrne, Ranston, 
Steepleton, Pimperne, Guinville, Gussage, and Critchell (to say 
nothing of Wilts) — were emancipated by this Act ; which, besides 
the removal of actual trespassers, encouraged the breaking up of 
downs, commons, and coppices, of whi( h the landowners have 
up to this time availed themselves to the extent of nearly 4000 
acres. The chase coppices have been improved 2-r)ths by the 
disfranchisement — 1st, in tlie uninterrupted growth of the wood; 
