The Farming of Cheshire. 
67 
to any extent, then follows the complaint that it will not pasture; it is then 
ploughed again, is subjected to the same treatment as before, and some 
will even take three white crops before they will let the field lie ; the land 
is consequently so impoverished that it becomes almost useless for several 
years. But there are many exceptions to the above bad system, and of 
late years improvements have progressed so much that we now see, in dif- 
ferent situations, good crops of turnips produced with bones and Guano." 
From the Hundred of Broxton : — 
" The farmers, if left to themselves, have little or no system of crop- 
ping ; they have an inveterate inclination to keep tillins: the same land, 
until reduced to a stand-still, and then to sow with the last crop of oats a 
little red clover and some seeds out of the hay-loft ; but the usual course 
is, on breaking up — oats, fallow, wheat, oats and seeds, clover mown, pas- 
ture ; but most of the farmers would, if uncontrolled, go on with at least 
another crop of wheat and oats before the seeds. The fallows are occa- 
sionally broken as to pieces of fields, with potatoes and noiv turnips. On 
this estate they seldom till a third of the farm ; no more than two succes- 
sive grain crops without an intervening fallow and purchased manure, 
lime, &c. ; no more than three grain crops in one course of tillage ; only 
one crop of wheat in a tillage. Tenants are bound to lay all their farm- 
yard manure on grass-land, or green crops to be consumed on the premises ; 
not to sell hay, straw, or food-roots grown with home-made manures. I 
believe these restrictions are what most landlords about here are aiming 
at, and most tenants coming into. In Wirral many larmers take only two 
grain crops in a tillage — oats, fallow, wheat, and seeds upon the wheat. 
At the Neston Farming Club, last spring, I asked the question about laying 
down with the wheat crop, and was answered by their best men that it 
was an approved practice, particularly cn drained land, where it was not 
necessary to make small round wheat-butts."' 
Another correspondent, from the Hundred of Broxton, says — 
" With the exception of one or two fields, I may call the whole of 
my farm clay land." The course ot cropping I propose to adopt 
is — 
" 1st, wheat ; 2nd, beans, drilled and manured : 3rd, wheat ; 4th, turnips, 
or other gi een crop, drilled and manured ; 5th, oats ; 6th, clover. Whether 
I shall be able to overcome the difficulties generally complained of, in at- 
tempting to grow turnips on such stiff land, remains to be proved. I trust 
that thorongli-draining and subsoil- ploughing will effect such an alteration 
in the nature of the soil, as, in ordinary seasons, to remove those difficul- 
ties. There are two or three fields, some of the stifFest land on the farm, 
which present a very sorry appearance ; these I have been recommended 
to drain and cover with bone dust, and keep in pasture ; but shall wait 
until I see the effect of the course which I am adopting on the other stiff 
land." 
A third correspondent, from the Hundred of Broxton, writes — 
" The soil here is principally of a clayey nature, and there are various 
notions of farming. In many instances it is exhausted, owing to the re- 
peated cropping of the same land. Landlords have an objection to the old 
ley being broken up, which is a supposed protection to the owners of the 
soil, the farms being let in most instances from year to year. If leases 
were granted upon fair conditions I am convinced that an immediate im- 
provement would take place ; and if the old ley be so essential to the 
making of cheese, it might be gradually changed. Tenants are bound not 
to have more than one-fourth of the land up at once. I make a practice 
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