Farmiiw) of Cornwall. 
411 
in most instances exceeclin;Tly poor, partly clayey and partly loamy, 
resting on coarse argillaceous slates, abounding in quartz frag- 
ments, Laving various porphyritic and felspatliic rocks (elvans) 
traversing them in every direction ; and where the surface has not 
much declivity, there is generally found a clayey subsoil. We 
have a great breadth of this description of soil throughout the 
county, prevailing chiefly in the neighbourhood of the granite "■ out- 
bursts.'' {See anali/scs, No. 7'2.) In the parishes of St. Erth and 
Gwinear some greenstone rocks are found, and in the neighbour- 
hood of Camborne there is a deep marly subsoil, portions of 
which have been extensively used as a " marl " for manuring the 
poorer kinds of lands in its vicinity (61). This cannot be con- 
sidered as much of an agricultural district; a great breadth of the 
land is taken up by mines ; and though the soil may be poor and 
rarely of great value for agricultural purposes, yet the minei'al 
treasures beneath the surface far more than make up for this 
deficiency.* There is also a great breadth of "wastes" in this 
district, which forms the character of a great deal of the lands 
lying upon the slate formation (72). The farms vary in size 
very considerably ; we have a few large ones running from 200 to 
300 acres, but by far the greater number average from 20 to 70 
acres, besides an immense breadth of land parcelled out in small 
tenements belonging to working miners and cottagers which have 
been reclaimed from the wastes by those industrious individuals. 
The system of crop})ing, with the exception of a few farms in the 
neighbourhood of St. Erth, Gwinear, Camborne, and Illogan, is 
wheat, barley, and grass-seeds, with a small proportion of potatoes 
and turnips preceding the wheat. There are, however, excellent 
examples of good farming to be met with in this run of country. 
In Illogan parish, particularly, a better system has been intro- 
duced, — that of growing a fair proportion of swedes between the 
white crops. Lady Basset has been greatly instrumental in im- 
proving the farming of this parish. 
18. Travelling onwards from Perranzabuloe to Mawgan by the 
coast, including portions of Newlyn, St. Enoder, and St. Columb 
Major, situated more inland in our route, we meet with another 
* The minei are the great support of Cornwall : they afford trade to 
the merchant, profits to the adventurer, and employment to a most intel- 
ligent and a most moral class of workmen, through whom collectively the 
agriculturists find a ready sale for their produce. The direct value of the 
produce of our mines is 1^ million annually, of which about two-thirds 
is paid for native labour. They are highly valuable in a national point 
of view, inasmuch as they have led to engineering improvements which 
have doubled the power of the steam-engine and kept foreigners in a 
great measure dependent upon us for the valuable metals they alt'ord. 
VOL. VI. 2 F 
