24 Agricultwe of Berkshire. 
laying the tiles from 6(i., when the soil is of an uniform claj, 
to 9(i. per pole, when the clay is mixed with gravel. The land- 
lord generally does the draining, the tenant paying 5 per cent, 
on the outlay and carting the tiles. 
We find no more draining of any consequence until we 
descend into the valley of the third division, where the same 
system has been carried out to a great extent : there is here, 
however, some land still undrained, a small part of which lies so 
low that no fall can be obtained ; such land, for the most part, 
is in grass. In this division is a large estate at Buscot, which 
for many years had been entirely neglected and almost left to its 
fate, but has recently been purchased by Mr. Campbell. The 
new owner has just commenced draining on a large scale upon 
the deep system, and purposes doing the whole estate ; the result 
is looked forward to with the more interest as the steam-plough 
is about to be introduced for its cultivation. When another 
Report on the farming of Berkshire shall be written, it may have 
to be recorded of this estate that, what up to this period was a 
cold and sterile cla}', has become one of the most fertile and 
productive parts of the county. 
Grass-Land. 
The character and quantity of the Grass-Land is not of suffi- 
cient importance to require a very lengthened notice. Without 
any authority on which to rely, I do not think I am far wrong in 
estimating it at about one-sixth, or 75,000 acres. 
I find that the farms on the north side of the county have about 
one-third in grass, other parts of the Vale district from one-fourth 
to one-fifth, the central part from one-seventh to one-eighth, and 
the south part about one-seventh. On the whole these pastures 
are far from good, but their management is still worse ; and in 
these days, with every appliance at our command, it is difficult 
to reconcile the total neglect of our poorer grass-lands with the 
attention and outlay bestowed on the arable. Is it that they are 
naturally poor beyond all power of improvement? or that they 
are useless for any purpose ? Certainly not. Is it not rather a 
pr(K)f that the improved breeds of stock of the present day are 
too good for the feed they can produce, and that the produce of 
1 acre of well-cultivated arable-land will feed more cattle well 
than 20 acres of such pasture would maintain in poor condition Y 
And, notwithstanding all that is being said and written on the 
subject of breaking up such useless grass-lands, is there any 
greater proof required than the fact of their neglected condition, 
to show that they are neither valued nor wanted ? I am speaking 
here of those lands which produce bad herbage, and are not 
liable to frequent floods. There is much of such land in the 
