16 
Agriculture of Berkshire. 
success. Some contend for the seed being dibbled by hand or 
the drill on the ridge ; others on the flat surface. The choice 
between the two systems depends upon the character of the soil. 
Light gravels or chalks, it is said, succeed best when planted on 
the flat, whilst those of a loamy or more heavy character do best 
on the ridge. 
The Berkshire farmers are fully alive to the value and im- 
portance of artificial fertilisers, and liberally expend their capital 
in the purchase of those which are best suited for their various 
occupations. The value of artificial manures is now so well 
understood by all agriculturists of intelligence, that they, with 
very few exceptions (owing to high cultivation or favoured position 
of soil), go now as regularly to the manure manufacturer for dress- 
ing for their root-crops, as to the market for corn or oilcake for 
their fatting stock. This demand has naturally led to the estab- 
lishment of several Ijone-mills and manure manufactories in dif- 
ferent parts of the county ; one of which nearly joins my own 
parish, situate at Goring, and largely supplies the neighbouring 
farmers of Oxon and Berks with superphosphate of lime. Am- 
monia, or rather guano, in its cheapest commercial form, is ad- 
mitted from experience to be the most certain artificial fertiliser for 
all corn-crops, while phosphates are proved by the same rule to be 
best adapted for the cultivation of roots. Bones in a state of division 
from dust to half-inch pieces are used very extensively on the 
down-land and chalk-range of hills in this county for all descrip- 
tions of roots, at the rate of from 8 to 16 bushels per acre, the cost to 
the farmer being from 20s. to 25s. per quarter, according to their 
fineness. But superphosphate of lime, when good and composed 
of bones dissolved in sulphuric acid, is more certain in its effects, 
and the most generally adopted manure ; and such results have 
followed from the use of these valuable adjuncts in agriculture 
that thousands of acres in this county, which from their position 
would never have been reached with the dung-cart at a reason- 
able cost (and consequently must otherwise have remained in 
their sterile state) have been converted into highly-cultivated 
farms. 
The root-crop has in such cases been the foundation of all 
improvement. This crop, consumed by stock (usually sheep) 
receiving oil-cake or corn in addition, paved the way for the 
growth of the succeeding corn-crops, so that many of these com- 
paratively barren chalk-hills, that within the last ten years 
would hardly produce a turnip larger than an apple, have be- 
come, by the application of judicious fertilisers, highly-cultivated 
stock and corn producing districts. 
The farm of G. B. Morland, Esq., at Chilton, near Harwell, 
is a case in point, which, from high-farming and good manage- 
