Tlie Past Agricultural Year. 
243 
Jrainiug required, and were it not that the hay-crop was damaged seriously, 
jn'ospects would have been good, as wheat, oats, and barley did fairly well. I 
was during the spring a good deal on some heavy land in Essex, drained 
4 feet deep, and examined some of the drains; the land was soaked with 
water, and the crop ruined. The pipes were about a quarter full of clay, but 
1 could see no evidence of their being stopjied uj) entirely, yet there was 
almost no water running out of the main outfalls. The conclusion I came to 
was that the frost had pulverised the clay, and the rainfall of April, May and 
June had beaten it down and almost puddled it, rendering it impervious, and 
preventing the water getting down to the 4-feet drains. A depth of 3 feet 
would, I think, have given a better chance. On this heavy land all the crops 
were bad ; but the damage chiefly resulted from the excessive rain of the 
summer months and the low temperature during that period. 
James A. Caird, 
Hampshire. — Chalcombe, Winchester. 
1. Live-stock. — Hami^shire is one of the largest sheep-breeding counties in 
England, and the Hampshire Downs, which attain enormous weights and are 
especially remarkable for earlj'' maturity, are almost exclusively kept. Their 
flesh is nearly if not quite equal to the Southdown. I have had them 100 lbs. 
weight at 9 months, and I have sold 100 to the butcher at that age at 80s, 
per head. The lambing season begins early in February, and at that time 
there was last year abundance of hay and a fair quantity of roots, but the hay 
was bad and the roots became affected by the frost. Cake was generally used 
after lambing with the doubles and young ewes, but, notwithstanding, the 
flocks fell away in condition, and the breed of lambs was worse than 1 ever 
knew, and more ewes died. The flocks of the county were worth less in the 
spring as couples than the ewes alone would have made in the previous autumn. 
They had more than lost their winter's keep. The cold and late spring caused 
a working out of the hay, and green food was slow in coming; till in May the 
rain came on and thereafter continued, so that the roots were got in with diffi- 
culty and could not be hoed, consequently many acres have been ploughed up, 
or fed off prematurely with the weeds. 
Few cattle are kept in this county, as there is little pasture beside water- 
meadows, which are usually kept for sheep, with the exception of farms near 
any railway station which supplies milk to London ; and as the cows are kept 
in a very artificial way, the severe winter had no especial eflect upon them. 
A few Irish steers are bought to eat straw and cake, but, owing to the extreme 
cold and the fall in the value of cattle, they were not a success last year. 
The autumu of 1878 was not unfavourable for sowing and general cleaning 
and cultivation, and steam-tackle was freely resorted to. I have two double 
sets of Fowler's tackle ; but there are also many sets let out at a moderate 
rate. The wheat was put in well, but so cold was the weather that much of 
it never made an appearance for four months and then, especially the Rivett, 
looked very sickly and tbin. On the light lands the frost thinned it, and on 
the heavy the wet had the same effect. The crop looked worst on the latter 
description of land, and altogether was a bad one. The spring corn was well 
])lanted, and the oats looked well and were the crop of the season. Barley 
was fairly good on well-farmed light land, but useless on heavy, wet and cold 
ground. Fine weather was sorely needed for everything; first, to save the 
hay ; then for cleaning roots ; and lastly, but not least, for all varieties of corn. 
J. Stratton, 
R 2 
