Tke Fanning of Cheshire. 
105 
forming all the work. In a very few instances 5 per cent, is 
charged upon the cost of the tiles, but this charge, I should 
imagine, is only made to ensure a proper care and use of them ; 
and in one case which has come to my knowledge, half the value 
of the tiles is charged to the tenant — an arrangement which cer- 
tainly cannot facilitate improvements at a very rapid rate. There 
can be no question that a better state of information, and a more 
extended spirit of enterprise, have been promoted of late years 
throughout the county ; and if those who possess the means will 
cheerfully and liberally advance this movement, there will, no 
doubt, bean almost universal readiness, on the part of the farmers, 
to avad themselves of all those helps and facilities which modern 
science and investigation have brought to the aid of agriculture. 
Appendix. 
As a kind of " Appendix " to my Report, it may not be altogether desti- 
tute of interest if I narrate the course which I took in my tour of agricul- 
tural inspection, the principal journeys of which occupied me during the 
greater part of the month of December; having previously crossed the 
county in various directions in the summer and autumnal months. 
I commenced at the south-west side of the Hundred of Eddisbury, crossed 
Delamere Forest to Delamere House, the seat of G. Wilbraham, Esq., and 
observed some land near the mansion much improved by draining with 
tiles, laid upon split alder. On one of his farms in the neighbourhood, 
consisting of light sand-land, the Norfolk system of eating off the turnips 
with sheep is adopted : the land is sown with barley and seeds afterwards. 
Mr. Wilbraham thinks many of the old leases and agreements very absurd, 
and not at all applicable to the most approved mode of farming in the 
present day. He speaks highly of bones as a manure, and also of guano ; 
but is of opinion that the effects of the latter are very uncertain in dry 
seasons: he considers it very suitable to the culture of mangold-wurtzel, 
having an excellent crop this year raised by this manure. 
The fences here are in admirable condition, from having been carefully 
attended to when young. There are two brooks on this estate, one a clear 
white water, the other brown, both of which abound with trout"; and on 
each there are irrigated meadows. In the former stream the trout are 
large ; in the latter, small, and never grow beyond a certain size,— the 
meadows watered by the former are green, luxuriant, and productive ; those 
by the latter comparatively barren. It is supposed that the pernicious 
effects of the brown stream are occasioned by passing through peat, or 
some mineral substance, but the cause has never been satisfactorily demon- 
strated.* 
From Delamere proceeded to Weaverham and Acton Bridge, where I 
entered the Hundred of Bucklow, and thence through Whitley. Observed 
* On the property of the Earl of Carnarvon, near Exmoor, there are four streams : 
the Haddiow, containing excellent trout, and making superior water-meadows ; the 
Exe, inferior in the quality of the fish and less beneficial to grass; the Barle, worse 
again in each respect; and lastly, the Danesbrook, containing no fish at all, and itself, 
as I am informed, poisonous to grass-land. The variation of tlieir colour confirms 
Mr, Palin's opinion that these differences are owing to the presence of peat. — Ph. Pusey. 
