IGG 
Meport on Cheshire Dairy- Farming. 
low gets about 300 tons of stable-manure from Manchester every 
year ; but as the means of communication have been so greatly 
developed of late years, probably the profit of supplying that 
market is not so great as it was twenty-five years ago, when a 
larger proportion of tillage-land in the district was devoted to 
potatoes, carrots, &c., for sale in the populous neighbouring 
towns. 
The two farms are on different geological formations. Mr. 
Jackson's is on the great sheet of boulder-clay which so 
generally masks the Cheshire new red sandstone ; when taken 
by the present tenant it was studded with the marl-pits charac- 
teristic of the country ; but by levelling these, and grubbing up 
old fences, the productive area of the farm has been increased 
by twelve acres. Mr. Whitlow's farm is situated on the lighter 
land of the Keuper sandstone, which may explain why, like other 
farmers in the district, he takes oats after turnip-land wheat, 
instead of wheat after oats on an old ley. 
The following description of the tillage operations is taken 
from Mr. Whitlow's practice, except when it is stated to the 
contrary : — 
1. Oats. — The old seeds are broken up in January or February, 
the plough going to the depth of six or seven inches. In March 
five bushels per acre of yellow Poland oats are sown and harrowed 
in, and the land rolled. Harvesting is done by a reaper, the crop 
being sheafed and stooked by day work since the reaping-machine 
has been used. When dry enough the sheaves are stacked in 
skeleton barns, which are merely long sheds on wooden pillars, 
and with slated roofs. These structures, better known as Dutch 
barns, are very generally used in the county. 
2. Roots. — Soon after harvest the land receives a deep ploughing 
with four horses, and is then left during the winter. An early 
kind of potato is grown for the Manchester market, and although 
a white sort, they are locally known as " red bags." The system 
of cultivation is somewhat intricate. Mr. Whitlow has 700 
sprouting baskets, holding half a bushel each, in which the po- 
tatoes, of a size adapted for sets, are laid in August. They remain 
in a light and ventilated place until Christmas, after which both 
light and air are excluded as completely as possible until the 
sprouts are between two and three inches in length, when daylight 
is readmitted, so as to harden and "green" them. Early in the 
spring farmyard manure, to the amount of 20 tons per acre, is laid 
in drills 25 inches apart, and immediately before planting; 2 cwt. 
of guano per acre is sown on the manure. Upon these stimulants 
the sprouted sets are planted whole, in March or April, i) inches 
apart ; the ridges are then split with a double mould-board plough, 
the land is subsequently harrowed, and the potatoes again ridged. 
