40 
Agriculture of Berkshire. 
question. Much may be said in favour of eacli, and each also 
has its drawback. Those farms on the best soils, which are 
mostly of one uniform description of land (upon the natural 
produce of which sheep thrive), may be considered most 
adapted for dry-flocks and the fattening of ewes and lambs ; 
while, on the other hand, those soils which are very variable, 
with downs and down-lands attached, are certainly best cal- 
culated for breeding-flocks. Nothing has improved in this 
county so much within the last fifty years as the breed of 
sheep and the cultivation of those roots on which they so much 
subsist, for, at the date of Mavor's Report, in 1809, he speaks of 
the Swede or Ruta Baga as one of the most recent introductions, 
and the horned sheep of Wiltshire and the native Berkshire nots 
as the principal breeds of sheej) kept at that period : these are, 
happily, quite extinct. 
Agricultural Machinery. 
Nothing affords a better criterion by which to judge of the 
improvements that are taking place in a district than the cha- 
racter of the implements in use. In this respect Berkshire is 
by no means in the background. In passing through different 
parts of it, we find, in almost every parish, many of the most modern 
inventions. The iron ploughs by Messrs. Howard, Barrett, Hart, 
Plenty, Haslam, Ball, and others, have entirely superseded the 
old wooden plough. The Cambridge and other improved rollers 
are much preferred to the smooth ones. Iron and link har- 
rows are year by year getting into greater favour. Cole- 
man's and Bentall's scarifier is acknowledged by many as a great 
boon. 
Drills are so much used that we occasionally hear an old- 
fashioned farmer complain that they have spoiled all the seeds- 
men, and that it is difficult now to find a carter who knows how 
to use the seedlip. Drills used to be kept in different districts 
for hire, but now most of the farmers prefer keeping their own. 
The waggons are light and well made, and are still used by 
many in preference to harvest-carts, although these are patronised 
in different parts of the county, and I believe are gradually in- 
creasing in number, more particularly on level farms where th« 
fields are not too far from the homestead : the other carts are 
heavy and clumsy in the extreme, and call for great improve- 
ment. Chaff-cutters are more general than formerly : most 
people are now persuaded that it is both economical and de- 
sirable to cut hay into chaff, apart from the great advantage thus 
afforded by being enabled to mix together good and inferior 
hay, with sometimes a portion of oat or barley straw. Turnip- 
cutters and pulpers are much used ; the latter are daily getting 
