300 
Farming of Hampshire. 
That portion of the Hursley estate which is in, or near, Hursley 
deserves some notice, not only because it is a considerable and 
well administered property, but also as a good example of that 
mixed and varied system of management for grass, arable, and 
Avoodlands, Avhich naturally results from the situation at the very 
junction of the chalk and eocene formations in the south, and 
the consequently mixed and varied character of the soil. The 
arable and grass lands are on the London clay, very near the 
chalk subsoil ; while the higher and wooded grounds are com- 
posed of the Lower Bagshot and Bracklesham formations, here 
as elsewhere, in the county, thrown up into gently rounded 
and undulating eminences. 
The home farm comprises 740 acres, of which 200 are arable, 
90 dry meadow, and 450 park. The land having been drained 
and chalked, the foundation of Sir William Heathcote's arable 
management, now steadily pursued for more than twenty years, 
is subsoiling. The rotation used to be that commonly followed 
on these strong chalky clays : 1, fallow ; 2, wheat ; 3, oats ; 4, 
grass; 5, "old field." If the fallow got the weeds down, the 
four years' corn and grass gave them plenty of time to get head 
again. To Mr. William Fowlie, who has now retired after forty- 
six years' service in the family, belongs the credit of introducing 
a change which brought up the farm firom its old condition, and 
which, with slight modifications, prevails at present. The 
course is now one of six years : 1, roots ; 2, barley ; 3 winter 
beans ; 4, wheat ; 5, clover and Italian rye-grass ; 6, oats. A 
good dressing, about 20 cart-loads of farmyard dung, is applied, 
at some leisure time in the autumn, to the oat-stubbles, which 
are ploughed, in November, 8 or 9 inches deep ; Howard's P. P. 
plough, with the turn-furrow off, and the fin of the share dipt 
(so as not to take too wide a piece), following as a subsoiler, and 
requiring only three horses, while the Deanston used to have 
six horses or eight oxen. The land lies rough all the winter, 
and requires no more ploughing ; but is crossed early the fol- 
lowing spring, in dry iceather, with a two-horse cultivator. An 
occasional tine with the drags, to break the clods, follows. To 
prepare the seed bed, the cultivators are again set to work, now 
in the direction of the ploughing ; the rollers and harrows get 
a sufficient tilth. The seed is drilled on the flat, 27 inches 
apart, with 6 bushels of bones, or 30 bushels of other drill 
manure (such as sheep droppings and burnt ashes)' per acre. 
This year 1 cwt. of Prangley's mangold manure (value 8s.) 
and 4 bushels of bones (value 10s.) were applied with the drill. 
Bones have been proved to be the surest and cheapest aid to the 
productive powers of the soil : in raising the farm to its present 
condition, as much as 20 bushels per acre have been applied; 
