610 Typical Farms in Cheshire and North Wales. 
There are four cottages with gardens let with the farm, and included in 
the rent. They are occupied by stock-men and labourers, whose wages 
vary from 15s. to 1 1. per week. Extra labour is employed durino- the 
harvests. The indoor staff have nothing to do with the farm, the labour 
bill of which amounts to about 310/. a year. Mr. Roberts finds the net 
returns considerably diminished the last few years, on account principally 
of the decline in beef. The cost, in and out, of the bullocks and sheep in a 
great degree determines the balance sheet. Under the generous system 
resorted to in summer feeding of bullocks, a margin of 10/. is required to 
establish an adequate return, and this has not been forthcoming lately. 
14. The Farm o/Mr. John Roberts, Well House, Saltney , near 
Chester ( Flintshire ). 
Mr. John Roberts occupies three farms adjoining one another in the 
Parish of Hawarden, Flintshire — the Well House (where he resides) and 
the Catherine Farm, the property of the trustees of the late W. H. 
Gladstone Esq., M.P., and a farm belonging to S. K. Mainwaring, Esq.. 
Oteley, Ellesmere. The last-named has been in his occupation for 33 
years, the Well House since 1866, and the Catherine Farm since 1876. 
The Well House is about the centre of the holding, some tour miles 
distant from Chester, and the farm is intersected by the Chester, Mold, 
and 'Denbigh branch of the London and North-Western Railway, 
and has the two railway stations of Saltney Ferry and Broughton Hall 
upon it. The holding consists almost exclusively of sea-rsclaimed land 
(Alluvium of river Dee), and lies but slightly above the high-tide level of 
that river, into which the drainage of the district and uplands above it is 
discharged by large watercourses terminating with automatically opening 
and closing sluice-gates at the Dee side. The main watercourses, three 
of which run through the farm, are repaired by the landowners of the 
district. The soil, which is alluvial in character, is for the most part of a 
strong nature and underlaid by clay, but the sand crops out at the surface 
to a limited extent in some of the fields. 
The house on Mr. Mainwaring’s farm is sub-let, and that at the 
Catherine holding is converted into three comfortable cottages. The three 
sets of farm buildings are fairly good, and accommodate the large number of 
stock that are wintered and fattened. The heifers are tied up for feeding 
in a conveniently arranged cowhouse, and the bullocks fattened in nicely 
sheltered yards. The drainage is conducted from the buildings by gravita- 
tion to the adjacent fields. An Abyssinian pump 84 feet deep brings up 
through a 2-inch pipe a never-failing flow of water, which supplies engine 
boiler, and cattle when feeding. Pulping, cake and corn crushing, &c., are 
done by fixed machinery worked by 6-horse-power engine. 
Mr. Roberts has during his tenancy cleared 6,25 6 yards of old fences 
and replanted 2,064 yards, the landlord finding the quicks, and has laid 
out the fields with straight hedges, and in sizes from 15 to 40 acres. He has 
carted 700 loads of soil to fill round the Mainwaring Farm House, and has 
drained the Mainwaring and Well House Farms at his own expense, the 
Catherine Farm being done by the landlord. He has filled up many pits 
and carted ashes for three miles of occupation roads, besides breaking up the 
pasture land liable to flood and relaying it with improved mixtures of seeds. 
The Well House and Mainwaring Farms are held under an annual tenancy 
with agreements the covenants of which are not regarded, but the Catherine 
Farm is taken without any written contract ; a permanent reduction of rent 
was effected some 8 or 9 years ago, and 25 per cent, has been allowed on the 
Well House and Catherine Farms for the last half-year’s payment. The 
