Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire in 1888 : Class 1. 538 
indebted for some useful information, that the introduction of 
the swede turnip, somewhere about the beginning of the pre- 
sent century", together with autumn cultivation, which is still 
almost universal with all good farmers, was at once marked 
by a very gi-eat and rapid improvement in the prosperity of 
Notts farmers and the general productiveness of their land. A 
second impetus was given by the introduction of bone manures, 
which still further developed the root crop resources, and 
brought into profitable cultivation a great deal of poor land 
which had previously been thought unfit for it. Other im- 
provements naturally followed, and Notts became deservedly 
a county of no mean agricultural i-eputation. 
In Arthur Youngs time the Norfolk four-course system of 
cropping was much in favour on the lighter lands, but in recent 
times the practice of leaving the seeds down for a second year 
has been very much followed. Upon the clays and stiff loams, 
at the south-east portion of the county, 300 acres is considered 
a large farm, and 100 acres is a much more common size, and 
upon soils of this description, here as elsewhere, it is to be feared 
there has been much distress and depreciation. By far the 
greater part of the permanent grass is in this district, some of 
it of very good quality, and — as in Lincolnshire — the bullocks 
are mostly finished upon it in the summer, after being kept in 
store condition in the yard through the winter. Turnips are 
sown more than formerly upon the stronger soils, other than 
the stifFer clays, instead of a fnll summer fallow, and beans are 
extensively grown in the district. This crop is taken after seeds 
in preference to wheat by many of the best farmers, because of 
the danger from slugs to the latter. Wheat comes after the beans, 
and with much more success, and the seeds are sometimes left 
even here to a second year. Artificial manure is very little 
used for any crop, but the system of spreading and ploughing-in 
the yard manure in the autumn for roots grows amongst the 
best farmers, and is found very beneficial. 
The hedges are remarkably good and well kept in the 
county generally. There have been great improvements in the 
drainage of the wetter soils within the present century, but it is 
very doubtful if it has been sufficiently continued to the present 
time. 
There is very little dairying in the county except in the 
neighbourhood of the larger towns. Malt dust and malt-house 
sweepings are in great demand all over the county for feeding 
purposes and manure, but it is fully met — perhaps was originally 
stimulated — by the large supplies of this waste product from the 
numerous local maltings. Its theoretical value as ft nitrogenovis 
