416 
Farming of Cornwall. 
course of cropping is to break three years' old pasture for wheat, 
then barley or oats, followed by turnips or potatoes, concluded 
by barley and seeds. The breadth of green crops averages 15 
per cent., and very frequently a few acres of rape and potatoes 
grown antecedent to the wheat crop, and a few acres of vetches 
between the wheat and barley crops. On the best cultivated 
farms, the barley or oats after the wheat is frequently omitted ; 
and there appears a disposition to adopt this course by the best 
farmers. On the immediate banks of the Taraar, owing to the 
facilities which this river affords for supplying the metropolis of 
the district — Plymouth and Devonport — with vegetables and 
fruit of all kinds, the farmer is induced to grow a large breadth 
of potatoes, which in this locality precede and prepare the land 
for the wheat crop. The corn crops average 18 bushels of wheat, 
28 bushels of barley, and 42 bushels of oats per acre. Where 
the "dun-stone " rocks prevail, ^/te yield is full one-third moi'e. 
Permanent pasture in this district averages from 8 to 10 per cent., 
and hay varies from I ton to l^ton per acre. Cattle average from 
15 to 20 on 100 acres, from 5 to 10 in the year being fattened ; 
breeding ewes from 30 to 40, fattening from 25 to 30 sheep on 
100 acres. 
24. The next district on the south coast is bounded by Liskeard 
and the Looes on the east, by the Fowey river on the north-west, 
and the British Channel on the south. The intermixture of 
trappean rocks with the slates which characterized the last dis- 
trict is absent here. On the higher banks of the Fowey, the soils 
are partly clayey and partly loamy, resting upon a subsoil of deep 
rubble, consisting of clay slate, quartz, and loose yellow clay. 
This kind of soil extends to the elevated country inland, both 
north and south of the Fowey, particularly in the parishes of 
St. Winnow, Braddock, St. Pinnock, and in parts of Boconnoc, 
St. Sampson's and Lanreath, and is a very discouraging one to the 
agriculturist. Further south, in the parishes of St. Keyne, Duloe, 
Talland, Pelynt and Lansallos, St. Veep and Lanteglos, the soil 
partakes more of the loamy character, resting upon more compact 
subsoils, and this character may be applied to a very considera\)le 
portion of Boconnoc, St. Winnow, and Lanreath. The cliff lands 
are generally thin, producing scanty herbage, but owing to the 
extreme mildness of the coast district, sheep and other stock may 
frequently be seen grazing on the southern slopes, when snow and 
the severity of winter has covered and closed up districts further 
inland. There is a great quantity of woodland in this district ; the 
Cornish elm, beech, and sycamore arc found exposed in very high 
situations. The farms vary from 60 to 150 acres, and in price 
from 6j. to 25s. per acre. The usual method of cropping is to 
break three years' old pasture for wheat, barley or oats, and seeds, 
