On the Farming of Huntingdon. 
formed without any great expense or difficulty, as a sufficient 
quantity of clay is found underlying the peat at such a depth 
only as to admit of its being easily raised. Here, however, the 
circumstances were totally different. The underlying clay was 
at too great a depth to render the ordinary mode of proceeding 
at all consistent with economy. The resources of Mr. Wells 
were, however, equal to the occasion. On the higher level ot 
his park, at a distance of about mile, clay was to be had in 
sufficient quantity for all purposes, if only the cost of carriage 
permitted its use. Mr. Wells met the difficulty by at once 
causing a tramway to be constructed, and over this railway in 
miniature the fertilising material was carried by truck after 
truck till the whole surface of the Mere was covered to the depth 
of from 2^ to 6 inches,* at a cost per acre of from 15/. to 16/. 
But even this large expenditure has proved a profitable invest- 
ment of capital, as land formerly worth scarcely one shilling per 
acre, and yet subject to a drainage rate of six shillings, is no\y 
let at from 205. to 30s. This, however, was not the only advan- 
tage obtained, for in the course of the operations necessary for 
the acquisition of a sufficient quantity of clay for fertilising pur- 
poses, by the removal of the high ridge of land in the centre of 
the park, the view from the mansion was greatly extende(], 
and several new and pleasing features in the landscape were 
opened up. 
Nothing is more striking than the contrast between the appear- 
ance of the reclaimed land and a small tract adjoining, which 
Mr. Wells has allowed to remain in its original state, in order to 
show the nature and extent of the improvements effected. The 
reclaimed land, unlike its sterile neighbour, is capable of pro^ 
ducing good crops of roots which are eaten off by sheep ; the 
appearance of the rick-yard when the writer visited the spot in 
the winter of 1866-7, amply testified to the extent and excellency 
of the cereals ; and the clayed land was occupied by promising 
seed layers. 
Mr. Wells cultivates two farms of about 300 acres each, 70 acres 
of the 600 being upland pasture. The Home Farm of 332 acres 
is worked on the four-course system. Steam-cultivation is ex- 
tensively practised ; Mr. Crosbie, Mr. Wells's manager, asserting 
that the cost of cultivation is only 4s. per acre, while he considers the 
Avork both more cheaply and infinitely better done than that effected 
by the use of horses. At Michaelmas, 1866, the second farm was 
taken in hand, of which not more than a sixth part will at present 
admit of steam-cultivation, the rest of the land being full of large 
* A medium dressing of from 3J to 4 inches deep is generally considered 
sufScient. 
