The Express.
London, England, 1850-09-25 00:00:00

AGRICULTURAL DISTRICTS.

TO TO NDITOR Or TNT malty.

BECKLEY, SUSSEK, Barr., 11150.
Bn4—Fisreadialtbeinrennicripinal etthek district
grased I in
which Sas-
sex heart. deter-
mined to hoped one of the best herds of this breed.
With that view 'came to Beckley, on the borders of
Sum, where Mr. Samuel Salines, of Knell Farm,
long kept a large heed of Sussex cattle, which have
attained much more than local celebrity, though the
breed has never feted favour much beyond the con-
fines of Kent end Sussex.
On the eastern side of the Weald of Keat, bounded
by the English Channel, lies the extensive and rich
grazing district, Romney Marsh ; and the same sort
of land erns& into Sumer by Rye
and beyond Winchelses. It has evidently been
Awned by the receding of the sea, which recession
is still going on. Around Rye, Winchelses,
there are extensive tracts of sandy land which bears
at present a little scanty herbage, but which would by
and by, in the progress of time, also become grazing
ground. I oonld not help thinking that this land
might be improved at ate by the use of the same
means by which similar sandy wastes in Belgium have
been fertilised end brought into cultivation, namely, by
sowing bro3m, *parry, and other green crops, for the
purpose of ploughing them in, and so giving to the
soil vegetable matter and consistency; and I was told
that Mr. Jeremiah Smith, of Rye, one of the largest
farmers and hop growers in Sieve, has very success-
fully improved this sort of land, and brought it into a
very productive state.
Some portion of this level tract is still protected
from the inroads of the sea by an embankment be-
tween New Romney and Ilythe, called Dymcburch
Wall, which is more than three miles in length. The
is maintained by a rate levied on all the marsh lands.
That portion of the climb which is eituated in Kent
is about twelve miles in lecgth, and about eight miles
is its greatest width, end contains 44,000 acres. There
is a large extent of marsh lend, part of the same
level tract which extends in Sussex about half as
many acres u in Kent. This marsh land varies a
vod deal in composition and fertility. Much of the
border of the marsh adjoining the uplands is heavy,
stiff, and wet, while much of that near
the seas is light and trendy, and liable
to burn during the summer. The but pas-
tures lie between the two, sal on these beasts and
sheep feed rapidly and to a great teem Much of the
ninth land is in arable culture and produces large
swots of grain and roots; and I apprehend the greater
portion, perhaps all except tee brat feeding pastures,
would be most profitably converted into arable land.
Spiny of fresh water are met with in certain parts
of the marsh, but generally there is a deficiency of
water, which forms an additional reason for convert-
ing as much as possible of this level into
loge. Driining is r quired upon much of this
marsh land, by which it would be greatly im-
proved. The system of cropping the arable and
marsh land is to take wheat and beans in alter-
nate yam, occasionally substituting oats or
turnips for the beans. As may be supposed, where
this course is purened.witliont ample supplies of ma-
nure, es is too generally the cape, even the naturally
fertile alluvial soil is not in high condition ; though
with every disadvantage such is the abundance of
straw. at all events grown, that this year u much as
ler.. per acre was required and given for cuttimr the
wheat crop. From four to five quarters of wheat per
acre is said to be the average produce, the quality not
being very good. Large crops of oats are grown here,
and turnip, radish, and mangoll seeds are grown for
the London Beadsmen. An immense number of sheep
are bred and fed in these marshes; the second rate
land, which will keep hem two to three ewes per
acre during the winter, and about twice that
number in the summer, being need foe breeding pur-
poses ; while the fattening land will carry four or five
sheep per acre through the winter, and feed them in
the summer. About 30s. per acre is the rent of the
breeding land, and 40s. and upwards are paid for
feeding land in the marshes. These sheep are entirely
of the Kent or marsh breed. It is a white-faced,
long-woolled breed, with large frame, somewhat high
on the legs, and a heavy but not well-shaped carcase.
The wetbers at twe wears old will when well fattened
weigh about 12 stone. Some efforts have
at various times been made for the im-
provement of this breed; in particular, Mr.
Richard Goold, of CAshall Farm, near Milton,
commenced in 1795 the creation of a flock which has
attained some local celebrity as " new Kents." In
that year he selected nine ewes and a ram from Rom-
ney Mania, and, with the exception of using a few
rams afterwards obtained from Mr. Wall, a careful
breeder of such stock, be preduced many thousand
sheep ; he adhered strictly to the principle of in and
in breeding. Mr. Gaold has retired from bungee.,
but his flock is maintained by his successor, Mr.
Fullegar. It is said that the improved Kents come
early to maturity, have a large carcase, are broad on
the boa, and deep bodied, and that their wool is
both long and fine. The marsh grseere, however,
have not adopted this breed to any extent,
it being objected that it is too delicate for
mach exposed situations as they are kept
in. Recently several of the Kentish flockmuters
bare used Cabrera rams for their Kent ewes, and
the improvement is the stock front that crop is very
great. The Cotswolds are well fitted to correct the
sunk and mis-shapen carcase of the Kenn, and are as
well calculated to bear exposers as the Kent. them-
selves. The Kent sheep are long-legged animals, not
very straight in the back, and have heavy pot-bellied
carcasses, indicating slow-feeding qualities and mach
offal ; their hardy constitution being one of their chief
recommendations. But that hardihood doss not seem
to imply a vigorous appetite ; for I was told that
Kent sheep will starve on pastures where
Southdowas will thrive : and, as I know
from expensese that bath Cotswolds and
Leicester. will do well on pastures which are too
bare or too much run over for the Southdowne, I had
a tolerable measure of the real hardihood of Kent
@beep. Bat the system of the Romney Marsh flock-
masters seems to be one not much ealcolated for the
improvement of sheep. They depend almost exclu-
lively on the paeans load for malarainiag them
through tbe wiater,as well as in the seamier, sad it
is only during very severe frosts, or when snow is on
the ground, that their old sheep litter bay or a few
turnip.. Such treatment cannot, of course, be borne
by the lambi; eenseqaestly, from the beginning of
eeptember to the begisalng of April, all their lambs
are sent kag diatoms, up the country to be
wintered. The prise paid for the winter's
tee, b about 51. a 603 f., aid in the
majority of eases they are very badly kept, returning
to the marshes is the spring is a half starved condi-
tion. So weak are these poor creatures that great
slumbers die on being put on the rich mush pastures.
Than is no doubt that by better provision In the
mesh district, such as the erectile of yards and
Asa; the cultivation of roots, and perhaps the plant-
et trees or hedges for shelter in very exposed
sttiatieier • tired many of the lambs bred in the
mein be wintered there. It is admitted that
thigreithinftsatmtish breeders are want of care and
atbetilmitteelestiagthebreedingsteckand insufficient
feed is resrlag the lambs. I met with instances in
which the following arrangement is made, vie.: the
lambs when put out to keep are valued; and re-valued
in the spring when sent home, the owner paying the
taker-in the difference, whatever it may be, between
the valse of the lambs in spring and is autumn; if
Hap is no human of value or a deterioration, the
taisse-in gets nothing for the winter's keep. I did not
bats, however, that this plan his been extensively
adepted. Mani_ lambs are taken in to keep by
bums in the Weald end other parts of Kent and
Mum who have literally no other provision tor
Hsu Van wheat, oat, or clover stubble., with as
01111111inal change to the meadows; and after Christ-
en tiny live principally oa the hedges and
sews. It is mid that they often go horns
rag"with nearly all the wool of their necks to
elessldses, and partially from the body,!
nand by
_their habitual resort te the hedge-
row for fool. The author of tile -pries essay eef
the Bortvi taittltural Society en the fanning of
!nett,' of this system of plittleg out lambs
te he seas f
_Or There el to two Or,
in serer, those 'tub put out taw lambs in gout con-
Ades to bd thus treated, sad these tolutake them at
a snub greater bee, not bluing a blade of rasa left
ea dies lands for cattle of any sort of their own."
AEI he eiße, that trittitil the la 4t tw9:YriCr lit h
lesi 18,000 actes won this system. is adopted,
and Iri bond that on farms where two or three thou-
mead chsep.might have been permanently well kept,
after the wintered lambs had been seat away, there

were not more than two or three hundred sheep
belonging to the occupiers, and I was not surprised to
heir that gassing in Romney Marsh has been for
some yeses pest considered bet an indifferent business.
This gentleman, a farmer and surveyor of great expe-
rience, distinctly stye that fifty years ago, when the
Weald farmers used to wean and bring up Sussex
bred calves, keeping a sufficient number as oxen to do
the work of the farm, and supply the hill farmers
and hop growers of Kent and Suers with good oxen
and steers of alleges, the condition of their farms tend
supply of manure were better than at present. And
all I observed leads me to believe that the substitution
of sheep for cattle has not proved beneficial to the
fanners of the Weald. In this pert of Sussex the
arable land is chiefly cultivated in a three-course
shift: 1. Wheat; 2. Oats; 3. Seeds, beats, or peas,
and the greater part a naked fallow. On this
fallow lime is the chief manure used, though
in many places it costs more for carnage
than the first cost of the Tine, and having
been now too often repeated, produces little effect.
There are many parishes where this system is pursued
in which 18 to 20 bushels of wheat and 20 to 24
bushels of oats have been taken u the average pro-
duce for the purposes of the tithe commutation. Here
there is much inferior pasture lend which might be
usefully broken up if properly cultivated afterwards ;
but where such a system and such results as I have
mentioned exist I am not surprised to find landowners
unwilling to permit their present tenants to break up
pastures. Yet some of these farmers persist in main-
tainirg hop gardens front which they do not grow
more than 8 cwt. or 9 cwt. per acre on an avenge,
and have to compete with growers who predate from
15 cwt. to 20 cwt. to the acre. Whet can be the use
of continuing such unequal competi•ion ? And
yet the term is robbed of the little manure
that can be obtained to supply the hop
garden. Thi■ is the kind cf hop-growing which bete
brought the occupation into disrepute. I have nowhere
met with so little of hopefulness or helpfulness among
the ordinary class of farmers as in the Weald of
Kent, and the adjoining part of Sussex, where the
soil and system are similar, and I meet say that unless
they can find means to em Ploy more capital I do not
see how they can continue their occupation". As a
person in the neighbourhood observed to mo—" they
seem cowed ;" and I confess with such crops as they
grow it appeared to me that the sooner they take
fright and abandon their occupation altogether the
better. That there is good farming in Sussex is cer-
tain, but the standard of cultivation amongst the ave-
rage f amen is a low one, and without energetic aid
from the landlord', I do not see how it can readily'
be raised in the lands of the actual tenantry.
I found on arriving at this plan that Mr. Selmer bad
lately retired front business, and that his farm had
been taken, with all its stock, by Mr. Tilden Smith,
the present occupier. Mr. Smith-bu the entire herd
of Susan cattle, which Mr. Selena during a long life
brought to great perfection, and the a .me attention
they received from their former owner they appear to
receive from Mr. Smith. I was not lucky enough to
find Mr. Smith at home, but his son showed me the
I greater part of the stock, and explained to ins the
system of management. The farm consists of twelve
hundredacree,of which the larger portion is rich marsh
pasture land; the remainder rather stiff arable. The
arable land is'wellcultivated,and produces an average of
four quarters of wheat to the acre. No wheat has
been threshed of this year's growth, so that I conl4
not learn the proportion it bears to last year's crop,
which was admitted to be beyond the usual avenge;
but several of the workmen who had worked for many
on the farm told me that they bad never before seen so
Ilarge a crop of straw grown on the term. This ti
what I have everywhere noticed on well-cultivated
iclay land this year. The course of cropping pursued
Mr. Smith is, lit, part swede turnips fur feeding
his busts during the winter in yard., remainder a
bare Mow, part of which is manured and part limed
for wheat; tad, wheat; 3rd, oats; 4th, sects, chiefly
mown once. The supply of manure derived from
the feeding beasts keeps the land in good condition.
There are several large and apparently productive
hop-gardens, which require and receive large dressings
of manure, a cart-load being applied to every five hills.
and there are, I was told, twelve thousand hills in a
garden of eleven acres. In the she cp management of
this farm there was nothing peculiar, the lambs bred
on the marsh being put out to keep, as is usual with
other occupiers of marsh lands.

In his Sussex cattle Mr. Smith eertaitly passeests
a herd, the inspection of which will repay any
breeder fur a visit to this district. Their late owner,
Mr. Selmer, some years since challenged the late
Lord Althorn to show a certain number of
short horn oxen against an equal number of Mr.
Selmes' Sussex lames, and though I believe the short
burns were successful in the competition, I am now
satisfied the challenge was tot quite so rub as it
would perhaps be generally considered. In fact,
however, no true competition can take place between
a herd of Sussex and • herd of short horns ; they are
animals of eseentially different characterietice, and
adapted for entirely different systems of management.
For early maturity the Sasses beast cannot apprea.th
the short horn ; but, as a beast of draft, to be after-
wards fattened when nine or ten years old, I appee-
bend an cox of Mr. Smith's herd might safely chal-
lenge the world. The herd is a large one, to less
than forty calves being nand annually, and
all are kept until sold off fat. Each calf
runs with the cow till three mnmhs old,
Iwhen it is weaned, fed for a short time with a little
oilcake and put into good grass. Some of the oxen,
and each of the heifers as mho calving, are fed off at
early ages; bat others of the oxen are worked until
eight, nine, or ten years old, and then fattened for two
years on the marsh, and sometimes finished in the
yards on railcar, hay, and turnips. The heifers and
steers are kept on the marsh during the winter, hay
being given in severe weather. I saw 22 two-year
old in-calf heifer., of good sire, and some of them of
very great beauty. I noticed, however, considerable
varesuon of colour, some beirg of that dark red which
denotes hardihood and pure blood, while others were
of a light red colour. This is attributed to
the very close breeding adopted by Mr. Selmer.,
chiefly because he could seldom find a bull of this
breed fit te match with his own stock. The majority,
however, are of the tree deep red. Amongst the
older cows there were several which in breadth of
hip, straightness of back, and ferias of the thighs,
might compete with short-horns; one in particular.
the dam of a boll Mr. Smith is rearing, I should
like to as brought oat at the Royal Agricultural
Society's show. A fat ox, ten years old, and a fat
cow, eight years old, beat of which will proba-
bly make their appearance at the next Smith-
field Club fat stock show, in London, are
worthy of the best attention of stock kr epere. This
ox has been worked in the team, and this is really the
strong point of the Sussex cattle. Mr. Smith works
a team of eight oxen, breaking them in at three years
old, and feeding them on grass only in the summer,
and on straw and turnips in the winter. These
working beasts are in good condition, and oxen so
well suited to the purpose I never saw; though I
could scarcely understand :the necessity :for using
eight in one team at plough. It seems that Mr.
Selmes used many more oxen for work than Mr.
Smith does, who, until be took Knell farm,',used horses
exclusively; and it struck me that the only substan-
tial reason for working oxen at all was to allow some
of the largest and best of the Sussex beasts to arrive
at their full maturity and development. The
_question
whether or no it is desirable to promote the improve-
ment mod extensios of this truly fine breed of stock, de-
vends upon tie prellidelsesse or otherwise of employ-
ing oxen in farm laser. With the exception of certain
localities, the agylegtaril speentanity has decided in
favour of the realer prolltablestess of horse labour
bat I am by no maim sere that decision is final. I
know several farmers who have recently begun to um
oxen, since railways have enabled them to convey
most of their prodigals to market, and who find ex
labour cheaper and not lees eMeint on the farm.
Should that practise =had, this Seem stook might
to come in for a larger• share of Roth* than
it has lately received. After working four or five
years, the Sussex beast may be fattened to a great
use, though, even then he is I inspect a large con.
suer, es sub aa twelve pounds of oil-sake • day
being give* to him when feeding in the yard. That
Is one-&m.th more than a short horn ox would require.
And Sarsex cows are bad milkers, a fault which has
Probably prevented the extension of the stock beyond
Kent and Salem. To oorrest this they are crossed
with the Jersey and Alderney breeds, and at Beckley
I saw five heifers bred by Mr. Rossell,• small fanner,
by o Spier: bullomt of half bred Sussex and Jersey
cows, which were very neat and promising either foe
the stall or the pail. Mr. Smith usually sends off 30
tat beasts at Christmas, chiefly of his own breed-

ing, and then fills up their places in his yards with
Welsh rents. Notwithstanding the perfection to
which his herd of Sven cattle has been brought, I
bAteive that unless he has a demand for them as
breeding stock—which I Aid not learn to be :he cams
—or unless he can make them more profitable
warkera than hot e!e, Mr. Smith would find a good
herd of short horns more profitable on his very useful
farm than Sussex stock. lie would feed mere in
numbers, bring them oat fat at an earlier age, and
produce besets of higher quality from short horns.
It may be said that with snob a herd as Mr. Smith's
he can scarcely be expected to change it at perhaps
some considerable cost ; but had I that herd—always
assuming that pure bred Sussex stock of the best
type is not in demand for breeding purposes at good
prices—l would at once use short horn bulls; in a
faw generations a most valuable herd would be the
r set. A MIDLAND COUNTIES FARMER.