Typical Farms in Cheshire and North Wales. 615 
per annum, wliile some 4,000 bushels of home-grown oats, and the beans and 
seconds wheat, are also consumed on the holding. 
The fields are large and generally well laid out, hut their shape depends 
in some cases on the line of the watercourses and the railway. The fences 
are strong. The land is subject to flood in the winter, and requires very 
careful working when dry, or results would he unsatisfactory. The stubbles 
are usually steam-cultivated immediately after harvest. 
There are six cottages let with the holding, all occupied by waggoners 
and stock-men. Six Irishmen work mo3t of the year, being lodged in bar- 
racks on the premises. The rate of wages is about 10s. a week and cottage 
and garden rent free, with potato ground for stock-men. Sixteen shillings 
a week is the wage for ordinary labour. A good deal of taskwork is done ; 
mangel and swede hoeing about. 10s. per acre twice over ; binding and stook- 
ing cereals after machine, 5s. per acre ; cutting beans with sickle, and 
binding and stooking, 12s. Other manual labour is obtained from the 
neighbourhood. The labour bill averages about 1,000/. per annum, without 
allowing for the energetic assistance of three sons, one of whom supervises 
the sheep and another the cattle, and of two daughters. Mr. Roberts keeps 
a concise and clear record of his transactions in stock book, diary, and cash 
account, .and says that had he not done so he would not have been farming 
at the present time. 
15. The farm of Mr. Jouy Smith, Sudloio, Knutsford, Cheshire. 
Mr. Smith’s holding is in the parish of Over Tabley, near Knutsford, 
Cheshire. It is on the New Red Sandstone (Red Marl) formation, and is 
between 170 and 200 feet above the sea level. The surface soil is a sandy 
loam, and the subsoil mostly sand. There is a good farmhouse, with small 
well-kept garden in front. The substantially built brick buildings form two 
sides of a rectangle facing the side of the house, and the drainage collects 
at the back in a small well, the overflow running into Lord De Tabley’s 
park. There is stabling for 8 horses, besides shippons for tying GO cows, 
5 loose-boxes, engine house with vertical boiler and 5-horse-power 
engine by Nicholson with well-arranged shafting, which works corn and 
cake crusher, chaff-cutter, and pulper, conveniently fixed adjacent to 
granary, and hay tallat, in corn-mixing room beneath. A pipe also runs 
from the boiler to steam-chaffed food, &c., therein. The piggeries accom- 
modate 25 to 30 pigs, and there is a living-room for the casual Irishmen 
employed, and implement sheds and yards. The large expenditure of 700/. 
has been incurred by Mr. Smith to perfect the buildings, and he also pays 
interest on the outlay on the new engine house and two Dutch barns, 
90 ft. bv 24 ft. by 18 ft. high, which have been erected by the landlord. 
1,077 yards of old fences have been removed and 1,787 yards of 
new hedges have been planted, the landlord finding quicks and material 
for protection. Mr. Smith has drained 30 acres 5 feet deep and 7 yards 
apart at 7 hi per rod, and 44 acres 4 feet deep and 10 yards wide at Q^d. 
a rod ; the landlord finding the pipes. Although in a great degree light 
in character, the drainage was requisite, on account of the impervious 
beds of foxbench (or sand) underlying the surface and preventing the per- 
colation of the water from the land ; 2-j-in. pipes have been used for the 
ordinary drains, and 4-in. and 6-in. for the mains. 
The tenant has also trenched and levelled, at very considerable expen- 
diture, a large sandliole and marl pit, besides filling 5 smaller pits and 
440 yards of deep and inconvenient ditches. He has likewise con- 
structed six well-arranged watering-places for stock, and laid out and 
metalled a permanent roadway 300 yards long. 
s s 2 
