The Past Agricultural Year. 
235 
than straw. Even hay that seemed to be got in well, has very little " nature " 
in it, and docs the cattle scarcely any good. 
The turnips, what few were sown early, had for the most part to be sown 
over again ; but those which had not to be sown over again, were by far a 
better crop than the late sown ones, for the late sown ones could not grow on 
account of the wet and cold. In the worst season previous to 1879, we 
always managed to secure enough of turnips to give to the sheep while they 
were lambing, but this season we have failed to do even that. 
As to my own! experience in general, during the year 1879, I never knew 
.anything like it. We foddered the cows with hay till either the 5th or 6th 
of June, and then we began again to fodder them with hay in August, for 
they had trodden the pasture into a mire. During the latter half of May, 
and the former half of June, they gave little more than half their usual 
quantity of milk, and throughout the season the yield of milk fell much 
short of the average. 
What with high rents, high rates, high wages, and disastrous seasons, on 
the one hand, and the low prices of everything but beef and mutton, of which 
we have not now much to sell, on the other, I never knew the farmers of this 
■county so thoroughly pinched as they are now. For the first time since I 
have been a farmer they are beginning to talk of throwing up their farms. 
But if they did, such is the insane competition for land in this part, the farms 
would at present be eagerly taken up; if not by houd fide farmers, by trades- 
men who have saved a bit of money. 
John Naden. 
Staffordshire. — Croxden Abhey, Uttoxeter. 
1. Live-stock. — My small flock of eighty Shropshires were wintered on 
:grass-land, and supplied during the hard weather, and afterwards through the 
lambing season, with plenty of good hay in racks and ^ lb. of decorticated 
•cotton-cake each daily. Few roots were given until after lambing. The 
ewes wintered well, and the total loss of ewes was three, two of which had 
thi-ee dead lambs each. The fall of lambs was large, and although the loss 
during the season was, in consequence of inclement weather, greater than 
■usual, the number of lambs weaned considerably exceeded one and a half per 
ewe. Over thirty ewe-hoggetts also reared one lamb each. In consequence of 
the scarcity of spring food, extra food had to be given to the ewes until the 
middle of May; and even with this expensive extra keep, the constant rain 
and cold winds retarded the growth of the lambs. The yearling wether- 
hoggetts, which I generally fatten at thirteen to fifteen months old, throve 
well during the hard weather on .sound sheltered meadows, having a few roots 
fresh from the pit, with hay and mixed cake and corn, 1 lb. each, daily. One 
hundred were wintered and have been all, except fifteen, sold fat, the lowest 
price being 55s. each out of the wool. 
Rather less than usual of foot-rot, a very troublesome complaint in this 
land, has affected my sheep. Except for the greater cost than usual of cake 
and com consumed, in consequence of the severity of the season, I can find no 
fault with the general result of my flock. In many cases, however, in this 
district the result has been far different. Some of my next neighbours have 
suffered heavy losses from the liver-rot, acquired probably during the very 
wet season in the middle of last corn harvest, by keeping sheep thickly on 
wet land. A large percentage of the sheep of this district were more or less 
tainted at the early part of the winter, and the severity of the season doubtless 
caused many to succumb sooner than they would have done in a mild winter. 
Cattle did not, where well fed, thrive amiss during the hard weather, though 
