The Express.
London, England, 1851-03-27 00:00:00

ON THE COURSE.
AL MORI' PARK sum.

7 to 2 opt The
3 I —tlu,t I 3 I Heiman Raton filly
METROPOLITAN HANDICAP.

.....o
S to I art Coro. S t I art Valentios
to to I apt Time Homburg.
The attendancv, notwithstanding the rain, was very
large, and the spurt excellent; the course, however, WWI in
a frightful state—trials of ^ speed were quite out of the

EPSOM SPRING MEETMO.
THE STEEPLECHASES.
ACCEPTANCES FoR THE FREE HANDICAP. —Trast•nse-
not, list 61b; The General, list 21b; Anglesey, 10st 71b;
Don Juan, lOst 71b; Miss Mowbray, lOst 6,th ; Mind-your-
own-business, 104 Gib ; St. George, lOst Slb ; Viscount,
lOst 21b; Legislator, 94 121 b; Buscot, 9st 71b.
ACCEPTANCE/IVOR THE GREAT METROPOLITAN STEEP LE-
cHAIDE—Sir John, Ilst 121 b; Lord George, list Sib ; Vain
Hope, Ilst 21b Sir Peter Laurie, Ilst ; British Yeoman,
10st 12th; Maria Day, lOst 121 h; Spring-buck, lOst 3lb ;
itst.emp, lost Slb; ltendsburg, lOst 2lb ; Jerry, 10st 21b;
Mulligan, lost ; Speculator 9st 10lb ; Scavenger, 9st 10Ib.

REDECTION or FEES IN CIIANCEIT.—An order
has just apared, signed by Lord Truro, abolishing certain
toss Lasts uw pay ia Clammy, sad Macias Ohara

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 27, 1851.

THE
AGRICULTURAL DISTRICTS.

NOTTINGIIAMSHIRB CLAYS.
TO Till lIDITOO. OP VIII DAILY NIIVIS.

Sts,—Starting from 011erton towards tho south,
you pass soon from the sandy soil of Sherwood-
forest to the north clays of this county. Just above
the little village-town of 011erton is Thoreshy-park.
the seat of Earl Nlanvers, which comprises Birkland
clays, a part of the original which contains more
authentic old trees than any district I am acquainted
with. Mr. Lowe, in his survey, mentions some in-

stances of marks found in onk trees cut down in

Birkland which denoted their great age. Thus, in
1786, an oak was cut down in which the letters J. R.
(James Rex) distinctly appeared a little more than a
foot within the tree, and about one foot from the
centre ; so that the tree must have been six feet in
circumference when the letters were cut. A tree of
that size is judged to be of the growth of one hun-
dred and twenty years. Assuming the letters to
have been cut about the middle of the reign of James
the First, the tree would be 292 years old, and it was
then sound and had not arrived at its greatest perfee-
tion. Others are said to have been found with themark
Jn. R. (John Rex) in good sound trees. South of
011erton is Raiford Hall, Lord Scarborough's place,
and considerable part of the land for some distance
belongs to him. He is a game preserver, and with
the exception of the capital faim of Mr. Parkinson at
Ley-fields, most of his lordship's tenants, judging
from the state of their land, would seem to be very
indifferent farmers. The usual course of cropping
amongst them was described to me as (1), a naked
fallow, with a " sprinkle of manure," for (2) wheat ;
and in one or two instances [ was struck with the
ingenuity displayed in " sprinkling" the manure so
thinly over the land that I should imagine the bene-
fit derived from the dressing to be very slight. The
wheat is followed by (3) beans; (4) wheat again,
followed by (5) beans, which often scarcely. return
seed fur seed. By this time a naked fallow is again
required. The wheat Adorn produces more than 20
bushels to the acre, thougllithe land, if well drained
and cultivated, is excellent wheat land. The farms
are small, ranging from 70 to 150 acres, and their
condition indicates that yearly holdings, said by the
flatterers of the landuerney to be the result of " the
confidence se generally existing between landlords
and tenants," have not, at any rate, produced good
farming. The fact is, that the small farmers here,
as elsewhere, never improve, because they have no
confidence that they will be allowed to reap the
fruits of their improvements. The following pas-
sage from a letter written in 1;94 by Mr. William
Calvert of Darlton, to Sir Richard Sutton, describ-
ing the then state of the small farms of this district
at that time, would seem to be nearly as applicable
now as then. lie says, " Except with a few
individuals, I find no general wish for improvement.
The hedges neglected, the ditches suffixed to be
trodden in and grown up, the weeding of the crops
not attended to, the fallows too little pains taken
with ; in short some of the farmers WC no farther
than the present profits ; which often deprives them
of future ones. I- perceive an error to pervade the
minds of many here, which would induce them, if
permitted, to plough up as much land as possible,
and sow four or five crops successively between
each fallow, with an eye to immediate advantage,
without any thought of leaving their possessions,
till in the end their farms become reduced in value ;
consequently an injury to their landlord (iii which,
provided they continue, they must themselves par-
ticipate) must be incurred." And the writer here
adds this very significant note which quite ac-
counts for the backward state of the husbandry
he has been describing. It is this: " I am
sorry to say, some landowners are so jealous of any
profit accruing to the tenant, that they are con-
stantly- inquiring into his profits; and, without con-
sidering his losses, expenses, &c., by advancing his
rent on the least suspicion of advantage, he is driven
to the waste and destruction of his farm for his own
present support." And now there is no doubt that
much, I may say most, of the bad farming. we see is
attributable to the mismanagement or prejudices, or
"suspicions" of the proprietors of land. I remember,
some years ago, to have ridden over a farm with the
landlord, who had just come into possession of it by-
the death of a relative, and he then saw it for the
first time. It was just. before harvest, and the
tenant, a good farmer, had souse excellent crops of
corn. He paid a good, nay, a full rent, as the new
landlord was well aware, and the land being light
required high and expensive cultivation. After
going through several fields and admiring the
crops the landlord exclaimed, " Surely, with such
crops as these I ought to be paid more rent." The
result was, a surveyor was sent over the farm, who
reported that the tenant then paid somewhat
more than the full yearly value; and not another
word was then said by the owner on the subject of
rent.
But a striking contrast to the generality of farms
in this district is afforded by that occupied by Mr.
Parkinson, of Levfields. Mr. Parkinson was at one
time an eminent (weeder of short-horns, but he has
now disposed of them, and buys in cattle fur feeding
only. I understood that his son prefers the more
ordinary farming routine of buying in stock, to that
interesting, and, unless followed with great care and
perseverance, hazardous branch of husbamhy, breed-
ing short-horn cattle. It requires peculiar qualifica-
tions to become a very successful breeder, meaning,
by that phrase, one whose stock always sells at hies
prices; amongst the most important of which are as
earnest and genuine enthusiasm in the business, tact
in observing good or bad points, and the power of
patient yet decisive action. Nor can it be denied
that the great value of a high-bred herd of cattle
seriously increases the risks of farming, where herd-
ing is followed on an extensive scale. But though a
farmer may well pause before entering upon breed-
ing as a trade, in which there is no middle point be-
tween success and failure—fur unless he succeed in
rearing high-priced breeding stock, his herd will
produce him but a few pounds per head more than
stock which, with moderately good judgment, he
might select in the market—l do think most farmers
lose considerable advantages' by nut keeping a cer-
tain number of useful breeding cows, from which,
by a good short-horn bull, they might rear, at com-
watively small cost, a constant succession of good
beasts. . _

To return to Mr. Parkinson's farm, which is a pat-
tern for the occupiers of strong laud. It belongs to
Lord Scarborough, for whom, as well as for many
other proprietors, Mr. Parkinson is, I believe, land
agent. The house is a modern and good one, reach-
ing almost the dignity of mansion. The extent of
the land is rather upwards of 300 acres, 70 of which
arc in permanent pasture. Some years ago the farm
was entirely remodelled, and the arable land, now
consisting of sixteen closes, of nearly equal size, all
well drained, and divided by quick-hedges, which
arc kept trimmed and cut at the height of about four
feet. The ditches arc all covered over, and the
drainage is so managed as to furnish a constant sup-
ply of water to stone drinking places, which are
sunk into one corner of each field. As, under the
system adopted, each amble closebecomes in succession
a temporary grazing ground, this contrivance is most
useful, and is worthy of imitation where practicable. It
is plain, however, that there must be springs on the
farm, for the bailiff told me these drinking places are
never dry even in summer, as would be the case if
they depended for supply merely on the surface
drainage water.
The land is managed on a combination of the or-
dinary four-course rotation, and a six-course shift.
Thus, there is first a four-course, viz., first, turnips ;
second, barley; third, red clover; fourth, wheat.
The red clover ley is ploughed up for the wheat with
a broad skim, which cuts off all the surface and turns
it into the furrow, where it is covered over by the
plough. In this way the hazard from slugs, so often
injurious to clover ley wheat on clay land, is gene-
rally avoided. Then the arable land is cropped on a
six-course rotation for two periods of six years in
succession. Thus the clover ley wheat is followed by,
first, a turnip fallow, about hve acres being sown
with winter tares to be cut green for the working
horses. The manure made in the yards during the
previous winter is laid on the turnip ground in the ,
autumn and ploughed in, the stubble having been
stirred to promote the immediate growth and subse-
quent destruction of annual weeds, a most important
point of good husbandry on strong land, where it is
often difficult to destroy them in the spring. In this
state the land is left untouched throughout the
winter, Mr. Parkinson well apprehending that

axiom in clay land farming never to tread or work
it when in a wet state. 'Hie allowance of manure

but that now there was a sufficient supply from its
own produce.
Further on I shall have to offer to your notice
some additional instances of what may be done on
clay land, in contrast with what is too commonly
left undone on such soils.
A MIDLAND COUNTIES FARMER.

for turnips is 20 loads to the acre. After the spring
seed time has passed, the turnip fallow so manured
is cross-ploughed in the most finsuruble weather.
and so much care is used to prevent treading and
poaching the tenacious soil that in ploughing horses
are used at length—a practice which lam satisfied
can never be safely abandoned on clay sal. On
really strong clays no drainage will enable the
farmer to work the land with advantage, I may
say without injury, in wet weather, and where we
occasionally hear of supposed failures of well exe-
cuted draining, I have no doubt that they would on
investigation turu out to be due to injudicious
treading of the land when wet. I have known
many tanners disappointed when they find that
after draining no more than before can they cart
over the land in the winter with impunity, or de-
pend with any certainty on feeding off tannpson the
la d either be the winter or spring ; hat such feeling
is altogether unreasonable, for the effect of draining
is not to render heavy laud capable of being ma-
naged in the same way and with the same facility at
any season as light land, but to fit it, when properly
cultivated as heavy land, to bear equal or better
crops than light land, with far less expenditure of
manure. It is the non-nttcntion to this distinction
which has brought heavy land into so much dis-
repute, both with farmers and the public; for most of
our modern advances in husbandry have been made
on land naturally or artificially light and dry ; and
too many who set about the improvement of clay
land would carry out thereon practices not materially
differitig from those found successful on the friable
turnip soils. 1 fisgust and disappointment are too often
the result; and the clay land is aguinabandonedto culti-
vators and systems which render improvement inept's-
Bible. Right views on this point are, bslieve,esseutial
to our agricultural progress. I lately heard an emi-
mut public man, one not given to hook despondingly
on agricultural prospects where agriculturists will
exert themselves, observe, in reference to the clay
lands of the Weald of Kent and Sussex, " I suppose
they must all go back into: grass, for a time at all
events." This may be so white landowners have no
means for, or will not permit, improvement ; but
it would be a retrograde step against which all land-
owners should be warned, amid front which they
should spare no effort to escape. What they and
their tenants should do is to see how such heavy land
farms arc improved and cultivated, and then, to the
best of their power, go and do likewise. It is as
grain-growing land that the greatest amount of pro-
duce and of profit will be derived from clay soil; and,
I am convinced that, when thesc'soils come to be Un-
proved and managed with steady attention to their
peculiar characteristics, we shall We thereupon
an increase, not a decrease, of tillage husbandry.
But I am digressing from my description of Ley-
fields Farm, though with the purpose of rendering it, as
it shouldbe,beneficial to clay-land farmers—and must
return. The turnip land is often ploughed three or
four times, and rolled and harrowed, the greatest care
being taken in every operation that no move of
the subsoil shall take place that is not absolutely ne-
cessary ; and this vigilance, let it he borne in mind,
is exercised upon land which has been well drained.
The whole of this is usually effected by. the second
week in May, when the land is laid up in ridges 27
inches apart. The turnips are drilled on the ridge
with a mixture of clay ashes which have been well
saturated with liquid manure. None of the artificial
manures are used. but the manner in which Mr.
Parkinson provides a supply of ashes is worthy of
note. Dunng the summer all the hedges and the
corners of his fields are pared, thus preventing a
nursery for weeds along the hedges where the
plough cannot reach, and these luinnie4 arc burnt in
the autumn with the clippings of the hedges when
trimmed. A mass of ashes is thus obtained every
year sufficient to enable a very large quantity per
acre to be drilled with all the turnip seed sown. The
ashes are of course kept dry until saturated for use
with liquid manure. The rapidity with which the
turnip plant springs up under this treatment equals
anything that occurs on our best turnip soils, and
seems to provide for the great obstacle to turnip
growing on strong land—namely; the difficulty
of getting a plant in good time. Man-
gold wurtzel may be planted early, and be-
fore the ground becomes too hard," as it is
nearly sure to be in a dry season, but the swede must
not be sown too early or it would run to seed or be
mildewed, while nt the proper season, a good seed
bed is of most difficult attainment. Mr. Parkinson's
plan seems to meet this requirement, and the result
is decisive for 30 tons of swedes per acre are the or-
dinary produce. The roots are not fed off on the
land,hut are drawn off in the autumn for use in
the cattlefold yards. The land is ploughed up
ready for barley without more ploughing in
the 'following spring. Then the barley, the second
crop of the six course rotation is sown; with it white
clover, trefoil, and Italian rye-grass arc SOW% The
following year the thinl of tie rotation, one-half of
the rye-grass and seeds is mown for hay. and the other
half fed off with sheep, that part which is mown re-
ceiving a light dressing of manure. The fourth year
the grass and seeds are wholly pastured by sheep and
cattle. The fifth year the sees are ploughed m the
spring and sown with oats, and the land in autumn
being again ploughed, is sown with wheat, which
completes the sixth year of the rotation. The roots
of the grass after the oat crop have become com-
pletely deluged, and the land is kept very clean. This
same course is then repeated with this difference,
that in the second six course, the seeds and rye grass
are not MOW!' at all, but are fed for two years. The
wheat crop usually yields from 40 to 45 bushels per
acre. By this system, while there is a large amount
of green cropping in the manner most easily ob-
tained on strong land, that is by clovers and grasses,
the red clover which will not biur too frequent repe-
tition, falls on the same field only once in 16 years.
Eight or ten horses are required to do the work of
the farm, and I think there are about half-a-dozen
cows now kept, a well-bred hull being still used.
The sheep stock consists of 200 ewes, a crop of the
Leicester and Lincoln, and the lambs, when weaned,
are taken to another farm. They are subsequently
brought back, and finally go off fat when little more
than a year old ; the greater part of the ewes are
also fattened, fresh ones being brought in to supply
their places. A small part of the farm which was
formerly hop ground, and consequently exuberantly
manured, besides being naturally deep staple land,
is cropped with wheat and beans alternately, a small
part of the land in the bean or fallow year being
sown with white turnips. There are also several ir-
rigated meadows at the lower part of the farm. From
45 to 50 beasts are fed in the yards during winter,
and this is managed economically, for the only arti-
ficial food given consists of about 41h. of oileake each,
the rest of the food consisting of roots, hay, and
other produce of the farm.
Here we have a clay-land farm kept up to a very
high degree of fertility at an expense considerably less
than is usually incuried in the high cultivation of a
light laud farm of the same extent, and certainly
with results in produce that would bear a comparison
very satisfactory to the occupier, with the produce of
light land ; though there is no doubt that to bring it
to its present condition far more of permanent outlay
must have been incurred than would have been ne-
cessary on light. And here lies the great disadvan-
tage of strong ; it requires much permanent and
costly improvement before it can be farmed well or
profitably. In this instance the land has been all
drained, the fields reshaped, the hedges planted and
trained, the ditches tiled and covered over, roads
made, and buildings (I believe the house itself),
erected at the sole cost of the tenant, a man of
education and intelligence, and with resources be-
yond the capital employed in farming; but the
other neighbouring farms belonging to the same
estate show no disposition on the part of their
tenants to imitate Mr. Parkinson's spirited and ob-
viously well repaid expenditure. And the reason is
soon told, they have not the means of making such
outlays, which properly belong to their landlord, and
he his no inclination to make it. It has been said
Mr. Parkinson has made this outlay without a lease,
and by virtue of the confidence subsisting between
him and his landlord, but that is a fallacy, if any
general conclusion is meant to be drawn front the
fact, because when Mr. Parkinson's relation to the
owner of his farm is considered, it may well be be-
lieved that he is at least as necessary to his landlord,
as the occupation of the farm is useful to himself. In
order to get up his farm to its present point of fer-
tility, Mr. Parkinson at one time drew largely on the
neighbouring forest lands for fern and rough grass
for litter for his stock. His bailiff told me they had
got hundreds upon hundreds of loads of this litter
from the forest, when the farm wan first improved,