358 
Isle of Wight. 
usual rotation on the wet land is : 1, wheat ; 2, oats (this land is 
not fit for barley) ; 3, seeds ; 4, an open summer fallow. The 
grass is broken up in November, and in the following spring and 
summer the land is dragged down, cross-ploughed, dragged 
again, ploughed up into ridges, dragged, and sown to wheat 
broadc ast. There is only one ploughing for oats in February. 
The lands are curiously small, only four turns. Autumn culti- 
vation is not practised, the wheat-stubbles being left untouched 
till seed-time. The oats are broadcasted, and the seeds harrowed 
in at the same time. Instances are not wanting in which the 
land is not seeded, but left to itself for years after two crops 
of grain. It is rather deserted by the plough than converted into 
pasturage. The plough is always drawn by four horses. The 
dung is applied to the wheat-crop, with sometimes a little guano 
as a top-dressing in the spring, when the wet seems to tell on the 
young plant, and a stimulant is wanted. A few lambs are bought 
in, and sold out as tegs. The expense of this system is fearful 
to contemplate. The cost of the three ploughings and three 
draggings, with four or six horses, will amount to 12s. or 145. per 
acre each time. Much dung is required : but where is it to come 
from ? There can be no grazing without roots. When, on the 
other side of the account, the produce is given — wheat 14 bushels 
and oats 20 — it is inconceivable how arable farming can exist as 
a calling on the wet lands of the north. The old style of farming 
is indeed disappearing, and would be even now a thing of the 
past, but for the good sale for milk afforded by the watering- 
places, and the very little labour which the grass-fields and a few 
cows require. The system, even with these aids, must soon come 
to an end ; for the soil is not naturally rich enough to allow all 
its produce to be carried off, and nothing but the cow-droppings 
restored to it. On the drier soils, barley (for which three or four 
ploughings are given to get a fine tilth) is substituted for oats ; 
or, on favourable spots, turnips follow wheat, to be themselves 
followed by a fallow on the less generous, by barley on the 
better ground. 
The cautious native agriculturist' is not disposed to trust any 
of the soils, whether more or less dry, farther than he can see 
them. He is fearful of their ingratitude if he treat them too 
well. " The land is weak," he says ; " if you force it too much, 
it will give out altogether." 
The better farmers throughout the north buy in Dorset ewes 
at Appleshaw or Weyhill in October, at prices varying from 
36s. to 48s. ; keep them at first on stubbles and clover-leys ; put 
them on turnips in November or December, when they lamb; 
force on the lambs with white peas and cake ; begin to draft 
lambs from New Year's Day, the trade continuing steady through 
