The Farming of Cheshire. 
69 
Another correspondent, from the Hundred of Nantwich, writes — 
" The tenantry on this estate are all under yearly agreements, at a valu- 
ation of cheese at 60s. per cwt. and corn at 9*. per bushel. They are al- 
lowed two-sevenths of their acreage for their yearly tillage, and are not 
permitted to take more than two straw crops in succession ; but there is 
such a disparity in the farms, that no general rule could be laid down that 
would be beneficial to either the landlord or the tenant. Upon the light- 
soil farms, under the best management, the four-course system is practised ; 
others prefer taking a crop of oats upon their clover-leys, and wheat after- 
wards ; and where two white crops are taken in two successive yeare, I 
give the preference to this mode, instead of taking the oats after the wheat 
crop. Upon those farms which will not answer for turnips, fallow, oats, 
and clover is the usual course, two years down ; oats upon the clover-ley, 
fallow next, wheat, and oats with seeds." 
From the Hundred of Eddisbury : — 
".The state of cropping in this neighbourhood is as follows with most of 
the farmers: — 1st, oats; 2nd, potatoes ; 3rd, wheat; 4th, oats, laid down 
with clover ; the general management is not good, the crops being left in a 
dirty state. Another course, pursued with old pasture broken up, is, 1st, 
oats ; 2nd, green crop (potatoes, turnips, mangold wurtzel, &c.) ; 3rd, wheat 
after potatoes and mangold wurtzel, barley after turnips, laid down with 
red clover and Italian rye-grass ; 4th, mowed ; 5th, oats ; 6th, green crop, 
as before ; 7th, wheat and barley, laid down with a mixture of clover and 
grass seeds for permanent pasture. By this rotation of cropping, the land 
gets twice manured in seven years ; and if the crops have been well cleaned, 
the soil will be in fine order for clover, &c." 
Another correspondent^ from the Hundred of Eddisbury, says, — 
"The course of crops on tillage land in this county is as various perhaps 
as can be conceived, and a neglect of a regular succession may probably 
be attributed to every successful farmer only using the plough as an ac- 
companiment to the pail ; for cheese being produced here in great abun- 
dance, and the agriculturist well knowing that he can obtain a considerable 
sum annually from his dairy occupations, at a trifling expense (as conj- 
pared with the growth of corn), usually devotes all his skill for the attain- 
ment of that object ; he consequently grows but little corn, and frequently 
neglects his tillage land. This is more generally the case on strong clay 
soils, though not at all unusual on lighter soils, which are adapted to a 
better system of husbandry. Although Cheshire has not ranked high 
among agriculturists, for any great ingenuity displayed by its practical 
farmers, still there are districts in this county which are not inferior to any 
in the kingdom for the economical and profitable system of management 
adopted. In these parts, the four and five course system (including clover) 
is the general practice." 
From the Hundred of Wirral :— 
" This may be said to be a dairy district, where the farmer's chief attention 
is paid to his grass land. The small quantity of land w hich he is allowed 
by his tenure 1o plough or break up varying in extent from l-3rd, l-4th, 
and l-5th of his whole farm, that portion which is under tillage is very 
soon reduced to poverty by wheat, oats, and clover in succession, with but 
little assistance of either manure or cleaning applied to it; and in many 
instances, the farmer comes to a stand-still for want of produce of straw ; 
he is then compelled to request his landlord to allow him to break up a 
piece of his grass land, 'to give him something,' as he says, and the tenant 
