46G 
Mejjort of the Judges on the 
plough is very limited the whole energy of the farmer is naturally 
turned to providing the greatest weight of roots and cabbages 
for his cows ; but where no such pressing need exists, it 
appeared to us that the pastures might be relieved by the sheep 
being folded upon some green crop during a portion of the 
summer. 
We ought, however, to record a singularly successful instance 
of keeping sheep in the winter upon heavy arable land. It was 
impossible to feed off the roots where they were grown, as the 
sheep would so poach and puddle the soil as to spoil it for 
the loUowing crop. So the swedes are carted to the two-year- 
old seeds, and there banked up. The sheep were folded upon 
these seeds without any detriment to the land, and had a clean 
and fairly dry lodging. The ley ground was afterwards 
ploughed up and sown with oats, which were the best crop we 
saw in our long rambles. 
Consequent upon the general sale of milk, pigs are now so 
small in number as to be hardly worthy a passing remark. Qn 
•one or two farms good big Yorkshire sows are kept, and where 
pigs are fattened on meal and whey, some strong stores, mainly 
of the Tamworth breed, are bought in, and appear to pay well 
for grazing, leaving Is. per head per week for the whey they 
consume, besides paying for the meal. 
The health of the cattle was generally excellent. In two 
instances we found the young stock upon the farm attacked with 
foot-and-mouth disease, but by careful isolation this tiresome 
malady did not extend to the dairy cows, and thus a far more 
serious loss was arrested. Upon only one farm did we hear of 
the ravages of pleuro-pneumonia, and there the owner took the 
most sure method of introducing the disease, not only to his 
own dairy, but into the neighbourhood. He went twice to 
Dublin and bought a lot of cheap cows, and twice lost all his 
stock. In all probability he won't try it again ; twice bitten he 
will be surely thrice shy. 
But the losses from fluke among the sheep have been most 
appalling. So great has been the destruction that upon some 
farms we visited no sheep are kept, while on many others the 
numbers are greatly reduced. Not only upon flooded lands, but 
upon pastures that never rotted sheep within the memory of 
man, has this plague been common in 1879-80. The effects 
are visible even now among some flocks, but we believe the 
plague is stayed. During the past wet seasons the foot-rot also 
seems to have been a terrible scourge to the sheep of this district. 
The growth of cereals is not the main feature of Derbyshire 
farming, but it occupies such a position as to call forth a few 
remarks. The area under the plough sensibly diminishes every 
