2G8 
Farming of Hampsldre. 
subdivision. The size of farms here is small, from 50 to 100 
and 150 acres; the fields are irregular, and the hedgerows high, 
with trees standing in them. There is, besides, much coppice : 
in fact, one-fourth of the whole is underwood ; of the remainder 
four-fifths are arable and one-fifth pasture. The farmers complain 
of the game. This portion of the southern district is, in many 
respects, a repetition of the northern woodlands, though the land 
is naturally less stubborn. The four-course is professed, but 
practice does not follow profession. No system of rotation is 
really adhered to ; the cultivator does the best he can, according 
to the season. This is not so generally a bean country as the 
north is, and turnips and swedes are more attainable here than 
there. If circumstances bs favourable, and if the land be chalked, 
the usual four-field system will be followed, oats being substituted 
for barley, and beans for turnips on the stronger soil. The 
manuring will be for the wheat or for the beans, with some 
artificials perhaps for the turnips. Chalking is done at the rate 
of 25 or 30 tons an acre, and is not again required in a genera- 
tion. The produce per acre is : wheat 20 bushels, barley 24, 
oats 32. 
The live stock are a few cows to each farm, half-breeds between 
the Alderney and the " Forester," to make a little butter, though 
there is nothing like a regular dairy. The turnips feed a few 
Hampshire downs, all bought in. Some buy ewes, lamb them 
down, and sell off the couples ; or, under very favourable circum- 
stances, I'at the lambs and the mothers. Some buy tegs, winter 
them, and get rid of them in summer, according to the state of 
their keep and their pocket. The pigs are either the usual cross 
between the Susses and Berkshire, or the Sussex, mostly stores, 
though very many are fatted and killed for bacon about Fare- 
ham, to supply the large demand at Portsmouth. 
Where the land is stiff, stony, and rough, the usual two-wheel 
plough, with a high carriage, is used ; on lighter and kinder 
soils, the one-wheel. Four horses are required for 8 inches' depth 
in winter ; two or three for 5 inches' in summer. The lands are 
half-rod, with deep water-furrows. There is not much broad- 
sharing or drilling, though a drill may be occasionally hired to 
put in the turni])s. Threshing-machines are used for wheat, but 
the flail for Lent corn. Waggons, not carts, are customary. The 
buildings are like those in the north, though (the climate being 
milder) there seems rather less shed-room : not much can be 
said in their praise. Fareham is the chief market ; every 
alternate Monday there is a very good corn and stock market 
there. " Buyers, sellers, and lookers-on," says old Fuller, "are 
the three principles of a fair." The latter chiefly frequent Ports- 
