592 
Typical Farms in Cheshire and North Wales. 
bull, is managed as already described. Mr. Oookson feeds the fresh-calved 
cows with a very generous diet of corn, cake, and hay. With the excep- 
tion of a dozen heifer calves, kept to introduce into the milking herd, the 
calves are disposed of within a week of beiDg dropped, at about 12s. 6d. per 
head, and the milk is utilised in the dairy. The heifer calves retained are 
left on their mothers from a fortnight to three weeks, and then reared on 
hand, and go into the herd about two years old. A dozen turn-off’ cows are 
fattened and sold each winter. The cows do not go out to grass until the 
first week in May. Mr. Cookson sells surplus milk for the three winter 
months at 10<Z. per gallon. lie commences cheese-making, by the medium- 
ripening process, about the end of February, and obtained this year a high 
price for the cheese he had sold. He averages 5 cwt. per cow per annum, 
besides some 40 to 50 lb. of whey butter per week during the cheese-making 
season. About 100 home-bred pigs (Large White breed crossed with 
Tamworth) are fattened in the year, the first lot going out at 12 score 
weight, and the second as porkers. The outlay in food purchased is 200/. a 
year. 
There are two cottages attached to the farm, and three regular labourers 
at wages of los. per week. The cottages have good gardens with 3^ acres 
of grass land attached to them, and are let at 10/. a year. Hours are from 
G a.m. to finish of evening milking, say 6.30 p.m. The cowman lives indoors, 
and receives 18/. per annum. The head horseman lives at home, but is 
boarded at the farm ; his hours are long, and wages 12s. per week and food. 
The extra wages for hay, corn, and potato harvest amount to 50/. per year. 
One female servant living in the house and assisting in the dairy has 16Z. 
per annum. Mr. Cookson says that the lower prices of produce and the 
increased cost of labour have diminished profits. 
0. The Farm of Mr. Richard Fearnall, The Lea Farm, 
Aldford, near Chester. 
Mr. Fearnall farms in the parishes of Lea and Newbold, some four miles 
from Chester, on the New Red Sandstone (Lower Soft Red Sandstone). 
Altitude below 44 feet. The climate is moderately good, and the rainfall 
has during the past 5 years averaged 27 inches, whilst this year, to June 10, 
7 - 22 inches had fallen, as against 080 for the corresponding period of 
last year. The land is strong clay which runs to a considerable depth, 
and is all under-drained. It belongs to the Duke of Westminster, and 
contains 353 acres, entirely in permanent pasture. Thirty-three acres are 
subject to flood from the Aldford Brook, a tributary of the Dee. 
The farm has been occupied by Mr. Fearnall for 18 years, and is held 
on an annual tenancy on the usual Cheshire terms. No permanent 
reduction of rent has been made, but 10 per cent, allowance was granted on 
last half-year’s rental. The rates and taxes have not varied to any extent 
since the farm was first occupied. The house is an excellent farmhouse 
with gardens and orchards at back. 
The dairy is well fitted with the usual appliances, and has recently been 
renewed and extended, by making above it a spacious and well-constructed 
cheese room, into which the cheeses are raised from the press room by 
lifts. The whey vats are connected by pipes with the new piggeries, 
which afford space for 20 pigs, and over which the meal rooms are sit uated. 
In the shed adjoining the dairy there is a 3-horse-power vertical hoiler 
and engine combined, which works soft-water pumps, forcing the water 
into cisterns at the top of the house, and also supplies boiler for dairy. 
Shafting is extended into the dairy, and does the churning, and pumps the 
whey into the cistern in the roof of the whey house. Another pulley turns 
