414 
Farming of Cornwall. 
poorer than in other places. The farms average from 50 to 
150 acres, a few however running from 300 to 500 acres. The 
rental varies from 10s. to 25s. The methods of cropping are 
various. The land is generally broken at the end of three years 
for wheat, followed by barley or oats, and seeds ; the large farmers 
taking a few acres of potatoes and turnips previous to the wheat, 
and a class of small farmers resident on the "moors" taking 
three corn crops in succession ; the land in this instance is left 
free from tillage for a great many years to recruit itself. The 
average yield of corn is from 15 to "20 bushels of wheat, from 
21 to 24 bushels of barley, and about 30 bushels of oats. There 
are only a few farmers * who pursue a different svstem, which is 
considered an improvement — wheat, barley, turnips and potatoes, 
barley, seeds. The yield on this system of farming is greater by 
20 per cent. Owing to the cold, clayev, undrained character of 
this soil, the harvests are exceedingly late, and very few turnips 
are grown, not exceeding 1 per cent, of swedes, and 1^ per cent, 
of white or yellow turnips in the twelve parishes. The cattle 
average 15 per cent, on the acreage — few bemg fattened, the rest 
sold in store condition. 
22. Our sui-vey will now extend to the borders of the " Car- 
bonaceous series'' on the schist formation, extending across the 
county from Lesnewihto Callington. The slale rocks are inter- 
spersed with beds of volcanic ash (dun-stonej, sometimes blistery 
(honey-comb dun), graduating into greenstone and other traj)pean 
rocks. These form beds of great thickness in the direction of 
Davidstow, St. Clether, and Alternun, the run of which may 
be easily traced on the map. A band of limestone is found in 
Lezant and South Petherwyn, but not of sufficient breadth to 
give a character to the soil. The parish of Lewannick is much 
intersected with trappean blistery beds — the Barton of Trelaske 
lies upon this kind of rock — and they often occur in their line of 
strike, in a portion of a field only — the soil being valuable accord- 
ing to their tendency to decompose. In other places, layers of 
clay and shale predominate; these portions belong to the "^ar- 
honaceous deposits.'" A large portion of Lezant lies on this 
formation; and where the soil is badly cultivated, the "colts-fool" 
abounds and attains an extraordinary size. Again some of the 
slaty bods, particularly those adjoining the granite, are exceed- 
ingly hard and gritty, having a coarse siliceous character, and con- 
taining in their line of fracture abundance of spar. Lewannick, 
Lemollar, and Linkinghorn "downs" are strewed over with these 
sparry fragments, forming the character of the soils on the wastes. 
* In the parishes of Marhamchurch, Stratton, Pougliill, and part of 
Launcells, the best cultivated part of the hundred is found. Some of it is 
really fertile, the rental averaging 25*. per acre. 
