Report on C/ieshire Dairy-Farming. 
167 
About the end of June or be2;inninf!^ of July the potatoes are got 
by fork-digging-. This is done by Irishmen, who come every 
year ; the price paid for digging, washing, packing in hampers, 
and loading the carts, being l\d. per score of yards along each 
ridge. As the land is cleared it receives a dressing of 5 cwt. of 
ground bones and 1 cwt. of guano per acre, and the ridges are 
then split with the double mould-board plough. In the mean- 
time swedes — either Skirving's Purple-top or Lord Derby — had 
been sown thinly in seed-beds about the first week in May, and 
left until the potato-land was prepared for them, as above. They 
are then drawn, the ends of the roots nipped off, and planted in 
drills, 25 inches apart, the plants being 12 inches asunder in the 
rows. Nothing else is done to them until they are pulled at the 
slack time of the year.* They are topped and tailed, and put in 
long narrow heaps (locally "hogs"), covered with straw and a 
small quantity of soil, except the ridge, which is left open until 
severe weather sets in, when it is covered with stable-litter. Both 
planting and getting are done as daywork. 
White turnips are not grown, unless a piece of potatoes is 
more backward than usual. 
Mr. Jackson sows one-half of his root-course with beans. The 
wheat stubble is scarified and ploughed 6 inches deep in the 
autumn ; later in the season the land is dressed with from 15 to 
20 tons per acre of farmyard manure, and again ploughed ; and 
in February or March, 2 bushels of beans per acre are drilled in 
TOWS 1 foot apart. They are twice hoed by hand, at a cost of 
-85. per acre ; or if horse-hoed, they get one hand-hoeing at a 
cost of 5i'. per acre. They are cut with a reaping-machine, 
lie three or four days, and are then sheafed and stooked, and 
finally stacked in skeleton barns. 
For swedes the wheat stubble is scarified, harrowed, and 
ploughed 6 inches deep in the autumn ; in the spring 20 tons 
per acre of farmyard manure and 4 cwt. of superphosphate are 
applied, the land is ploughed, and the seed immediately drilled 
on the ridges. Previous to putting in the farmyard manure the 
subsoil plough is passed 9 inches deep between each ridge. 
Hoeing twice and singling, which is done with the hoe, cost 12s. 
per acre, the plants being set out to 12 inches apart in the rows. 
From 3 to 4 acres of mangolds (a mixture of yellow globe and 
long red) are grown every year, the quantity of seed used being 
4 lbs. per acre. Both mangolds and swedes are pulled, topped 
and tailed, and stored in buildings, no "hogs" being made on 
* Compare with Mr. Le Cornu's description of the cultivation of early potatoes 
followed by swedes in Jersey, supra p. 137. 
