1G2 Agriculture of Noltinghamshire. 
cultivation was at the above period extremely defective ; the land 
being not well cleaned, turnips were sown broadcast and too late^, 
and the crops generally abounded with couch and annual weeds. 
There has, however, been gradual improvement, and occupiers of 
light lands in every part of the county now adopt autumn-cultivation 
and all other modern improvements to grow turnips, whilst the 
increased number of their sheep and cattle, fed to much earlier 
maturity than formerly, bespeak them a foremost place among 
the farmers of the United Kingdom. 
In respe^;t to the arable lands of strong loam and heavy soils, 
drainage has produced wonderful changes, and some of the fields 
which Avere deemed quite unfit to grow swede turnips now pro- 
duce the heaviest crops, the land being previously well cleaned 
by autumnal and early spring cultivation. If care be taken that 
the land is in a dry state when ploughed for the succeeding crop, 
that and the subsequent crops of clover, grass seeds, and corn are 
usually more abundant and profitable than after the naked fallow, 
which is gradually diminishing, except in exceptional wet seasons 
like the last : even if the land cannot be prepared for mangold or 
turnips, tares or mustard may be substituted with advantage. 
A practice exists in this county which is productive of much 
good to the labourers. Upon many of the larger farms a large- 
sized cottage is provided for the head servant, who is a superior 
married farming-man, and receives the house and garden rent-free, 
undertaking to lodge and board the unmarried workmen. The 
wages of such a foreman are from 25/. to 30/. a year, and he is 
allowed Is. a day for the board of each man, with stated quantities 
of milk and fuel and ten stones of well-fed large pork and two 
bushels of malt for himself and each servant yearly, and candles 
for the stables and cow and feeding houses. The yearly wages 
for men and strong youths boarded either in the farm-house or by 
the head man are from 13Z. to 18/. for the former, and from 8Z. 
to 12/. for the latter, and the men are generally as well satisfied 
in respect to their food and attention when boarded with the 
upper servant as those are in the farmer's house. The system of 
boarding men with a servant is most applicable where a farm is 
distant from a village, and they are neither so orderly nor so much 
under control in the evening in a large village as on a detached 
farm. 
The writer occupied for many years four farms, two of strong 
land, one of good loam, and the other of light sand, in parishes 
Avidely distant in the county of Nottingham, and he boarded 
servants with the foreman on each farm, who were steady and 
regular in their conduct and work. He was the first in each 
parish who underdrained land extensively and effectually, and 
drilled and horsehoed turnips, which were carted off" strong land 
