64 
The Farming of Cheshire. 
drilled at the rate of 2 customary bushels of 38 quarts to the acre, the rows 
being about 7 inches apart ; the wheat crop is succeeded by Swedish 
turnips in drills, the land being manured with a compost of dung and soil, 
the latter being taken from the headland. The turnips are followed by 
either wheat or barley, when the land is laid down with red or white clover, 
or a mixture of both and grass seeds; if the clover be mown, the land is 
again manured previous to breaking it up, which is generally done every 
fourth year ; in the meantime, it is grazed with either sheep or horned 
cattle. This farm is managed in a very superior style of cultivation, which 
does great credit to the occupier. 
Another course, practised on a farm of 700 acres, in the hun- 
dred of Nantwich, a part of which only is appropriated to the 
dairy, and which consists chiefly of a hght weak soil on a subsoil 
of fox- beach or white-sand, is as under — 
1st, turnips, generally Swedes, manured with 15 cwt. of boiled bones per 
acre, or, within the last two years, Guano, at the rate of 3 cwt. to the acre, 
part or the whole of the crop being eaten off by sheep ; 2nd, barley or 
oats, laid down with clover ; 3rd, clover ; 4th, wheat ; 5th, turnips, manured 
as before and eaten off; 6th, barley or oats; 7th, clover; 8th wheat; 9th 
potatoes ; 10th, wheat. 
One of my correspondents, in the Hundred of Nantwich, says — 
" My system of tillage is as follows : — 1st, turnips ; 2nd, barley or oats, 
the choice depending upon the nature of the land, as I find oats to answer 
best on peat, or on land which has been drained ; barley requires sound 
land to produce a good article ; 3rd, seeds ; 4th, wheat ; and after two 
courses I generally take a crop of potatoes, which is followed by wheat, 
and then return again to turnips, and the four course. If the land is very 
light I eat-on the whole, but generally draw off the larger turnips, say 
about one-half the crop. I grow from 80 to 100 acres annually, and for 
the last fourteen years have manured them entirely with bones, except a 
part, during the last two years, with Guano, which had a wonderful eftect ; 
I tried it last year in every field I sowed, and with the same result ; I 
think the crop was in some cases one-third moie, but generally about 
one-fourth. I have generally used about 14 or 15 cwt. of bones to the 
acre, and of Guano about 3 cwt. It is almost impossible to describe the 
nature of the soil, as it varies so much ; but, generally speaking, it is very 
light on a subsoil of fox-bench or white sand. I have only been a bean- 
giower three years ; I have sown them after potatoes and turnips, and they 
have always done well. I sowed some on rather strong soil, some on light 
sand, and others on peat ; the latter during the past year were consider- 
ably the best." 
Clay-Land Arable Farm. 
On two adjoining farms of about 900 acres, in the Hundred 
of Wirral, not very distant from Chester, by far the greater por- 
tion having been drained along each rein (the small butts being 
at right angles with the large ones) the following course of crop- 
ping is adopted, the same system being pursued on each farm. 
The grass land is ploughed in December or January into strong 
furrows, and in March beans are drilled in rows 27 inches apart; 
a small mark is made with a common plough along every third 
furrow ; thus — 
