272 
On the Farming of Huntingdon. 
of Mr. J. H. Casswell, of Laugliton. No store-sbeep aie ever sold 
off this farm, but everything is made fit for tbe butcher. Last 
year large quantities of roots were purchased in the fen districts, 
and, besides their price on the spot, entailed an expense for 
carriage of six or eight miles by land and thirty miles by rail. 
About a month before the lambing season commences the ewes 
begin to have an allowance of cake and chaff ; the lambs are 
supplied with cake as soon as weaned and are so kept until 
they are sold to the butcher. This system of high keeping tells 
favourably on both the fleece and the carcass, and continues 
steadily to improve the quality and capabilities of the soil. 
III. The Gravels of the Ouse Valley. 
The third district comprises the gravels of the Ouse valley, 
and covers an area of about 50,000 acres. Proceeding from 
Huntingdon in an easterly direction, and embracing part of the 
parishes of Hartford, Myton, Hemmingford Abbots, Hemmingford 
Greys, St. Ives, Needingworth, and Holywell — then southward 
through Brampton, part of Buckam, Offord Cluny, Offord D'Arcy, 
Diddington, Paxton, and St. Neot's, from Brampton, interspersed 
with patches of fen-land — it divides into two narrow branches, 
one of which extends to Spaldwick on the west, and the other to 
Alconbury Weston on the north-west. On the banks of the 
Ouse is a considerable extent of very productive meadow land ; 
the upland, under arable culture, being worked on the four-course 
rotation of wheat, roots, barley, and clover, or mixed seeds. The 
best farmers draw off one-third of the swede crop to be consumed 
in the yards by feeding cattle. A great many sheep are bred and 
fed in this district ; large quantities of cake being used. The 
frequent repetition of clover on the land and the high system 
of farming increase the uncertainty of the crop. When the 
plant fails a crop of peas is generally taken ; but in such cases 
the succeeding wheat-crop suffers in productiveness. 
Mr. John Jenkins, landlord of the George Hotel, Huntingdon, 
occupies upwards of GOO acres of land in this neighbourhood, part, 
of which is on the gravel and part on the Oxford clay. The light 
land is worked on the four-course : the strong land is, 1st, wheat : 
2nd, fallow ; a large proportion of which is sown with tares, part 
being fed off the land by sheep, and the other part cut and con- 
sumed by beasts and horses in the yards, a crop of common turnips 
being afterwards taken and consumed on the land by sheep. 
During the early part of the season the land is ploughed up, and 
being acted on by the winter and spring frosts, a turn or two of 
the cultivator produces a good tilth for the succeeding barley-crop, 
ijrd crop, barley, seeded down generally with broad clover, which 
