306 
Farminrf of Hampshire. 
show tlie change in fashion, they used, ten years since, to be 
purposely broken in a ru(kler ; now not a leaf is bruised. Of 
these operations, digging costs 14s. an acre ; becking, 6s. ; 
laying out poles and putting up, 10s. ; tyeing and clearing, 10s. ; 
flat-hoeing, 4s. ; picking, 2d. a bushel, when a good crop. Taking 
the average of seven years, all expenses, including rent and duty, 
amount to 30/. per annum per acre. The produce on the same 
acreage is 12 cwt. The sorts here cultivated are Grape, Green 
Bine, and Farnham White Bine. Rent is 6/. or 11. an acre. 
Though the cultivation of the hop lends the chief interest 
to this portion of the county, yet it is remarkable also for 
its other agricultural productions, being by nature the most 
fruitful part of Hampshire. From the hill above Alton, on the 
road to Odiham, you can see the whole of it, from Holybourne, 
Froyle, and Binstead, to Nore and Selborne Hills, Newton Com- 
mon, and Petersfield. At Holybourne wheat and beans are 
taken alternately on the strong land ; but this country is very 
subject to charlock, which cannot be kept down under this 
rotation, so that the four-field is the more usual. It is both a 
breeding and a grazing district. There are some rich and dry 
meadows on the greensand about Kingsley, East and West 
Worldham, and Hartley ; the grass, however, is hardly sufficient 
to make out the beasts, which are generally stalled afterwards. 
Mr. John Wood, of Theddon Grange, Alton, grazes many ; so 
does Mr. Chalcraft, of Amery Farm. The produce of this 
district is : Avheat, 36 bushels ; beans, 30 ; oats, 8 or 10 quarters ; 
Imrley is not much grown. Farnham, Alton, and Basingstoke 
are the chief markets. Wages are the same as elsewhere in the 
neighbourhood.* 
There is an Agricultural Association in this part of the 
county, " The North-East Hants." It provides prizes for the 
labourer and for stock, two-thirds of the subscriptions being 
appropriated to the first object. There is a Christmas fat show 
and a July lamb show. 
If, before passing on from " the character of the farming " to 
the next topic, I may be allowed to say one word on the character 
of the farmer himself, it would be to express my warm acknow- 
ledgments to the occupiers of land in this county, for a kindness 
which a stranger had no right to expect, for a hospitality which 
never tired, and for a frank confidence which knew no suspicion 
on the first mention of my purpose. 
Let me also mention my deep sense of the great social, and 
* As the -wages of the labourer will not be again alluded to, I may here quote 
from a Return to the House of Commons (8 Feb., 18G1), entitled " The Average 
