pretensions to anything but utility, are comfortable as a feedinghouse for cows, and are good stables when required.

The greater part of the land in this part of the county is in small estates of freehold. Improvements, if not rapid, are going on. Tileries are common, and pioneer the way to extensive drainage. Farmsteads are defective, and require restoration and enlargement. The farms are of small size, and from 50 to 150 acres in extent.

Few places in the county are marked with greater improvement than Morton, near Alfreton; the soil is on the coal-measures, and varied; occasionally dry, but most generally requires drainage. The subsoil is open and porous near the village, but the greater part of the parish is a cold, flat, and retentive clay; it owes its improvement to the enterprise of two medical gentlemen having capital, and skill to use it in well-directed labour. Ten years ago Morton was proverbially a cold and neglected morass its dykes and hedges wild, its drainage neglected, and its harvests later than any place in the locality. It is now

changed, and one section of the parish an oasis, compared to the watery waste around it. Sheep are kept sound where none could live before, and early lambs, sporting in the snow, are browsing on Italian rye-grass equal to any in the county. The principal agent in this improvement is drainage. Dr. Cooper succeeded to a poor and cold, exhausted farm, and immediately commenced operations by calling in the aid of Mr. Wm. Tebbutt, a draining surveyor of eminence, to devise plans for the complete and thorough drainage of the farm. The work commenced at a

uniform depth of 2 feet; and Dr. Oldham quickly followed the example: the latter, however, had some misgivings, and, having read a paper on under-draining in the Society's Journal, changed his plans. The drainage, then, on one farm was cut 4 feet deep, 16 yards apart; the other remained at 2 feet, 8 yards apart. In both cases the 24-inch pipe was used, and the ma terial returned into the drain. Presently it was discovered that both drainages were imperfect-both wrong: the one erred in width, the other in depth; 2-feet drains were too shallow, and the 4-feet drains were put in at too great a distance. After some experience in draining, these two gentlemen came to the decision "that a drain 3 feet deep, and 8 or 9 yards apart, was the best and cheapest mode of draining cold clay lands; and this is now their practice and the general practice of the neighbourhood. The fallows are subsoiled at the winter-ploughing as deep as the strength of the team will allow; sometimes with 2 horses only, by an implement of much easier draught than Reid's, at one-third the As these medical farms are pointed out as models of agricultural excellence, it may be well to give the course of cropping followed on each :

cost.

Dr. Oldham's course.

1st Year. Fallow, turnips, cabbage, 1st Year. Fallow, turnips, mangold,

2nd Wheat or barley.

3rd

Dr. Cooper's course.

or kale.

2nd

;;

4th

Wheat.

and cabbage. Wheat or oats.

Clover seeds mixed, pastured with a small portion of Italian grass.

Wheat.

Winter beans, peas, or tares.
Wheat or oats.

Fallow, turnips, cabbages,
roots, &c.

Oats or wheat.
Seeds, a full crop of Italian
rye grass for mowing,
1 bushel sown to the acre.

In these courses two white crops in succession are avoided-the legumes and roots come between; turnips are grown with superphosphate and farm-yard manure, and the straw is consumed by feeding-cows eating cake and turnips. The estate of Morton is the property of Sitwell, Esq., of Stainsby, and under the agency of Mr. Chambers. The farms are small, being generally less than 150 acres. The general management is improved, root-crops have increased, the climate is improved by drainage, and the snipe driven away to find a home and soil more genial to its nature. But this is not all done at Morton. What has been done can be done again. The political economist who accused the proprietors of Derbyshire of neglect and indifference to agricultural progress might at one time have cited Morton to prove the charge; or, if he travelled by rail, he might, after crossing the Amber, and journeying towards Chesterfield, find abundant evidence to substantiate the unenviable reputation.

The Hardwick estates of the Duke of Devonshire are chiefly on the coal series. The soil is variable and mixed: in the same field may be found wet and dry patches, but the greater part is a heavy and tenacious clay. The improvements in progress are very extensive, both in draining and building. A staff of builders and drainers are continually employed in reclaiming the clays and restoring the decay of many years; the farmsteads are improved; and, to do the noble owner and his excellent agent justice, what is done is well and substantially done. If there be any advantage in the delay of bygone years, it is that these important works remained in abeyance to a period of time when they are better understood. The drainage is the most important feature. Since the establishment of the Staveley TileYard, in 1837, there has been manufactured to the present time -including the yards at Oscroft, Holmwood, and Harstoft8,000,879 drain-tiles and pipes. Taking 2000 tiles as the average quantity to drain an acre of land, 4000 acres have been

well and thoroughly drained that will be of lasting service for future centuries.*

Stavely is the Newcastle of the Derbyshire coal-field. The energies of Mr. Barrow are directed to the most extensive and successful coal-mining in the world. Nor is it less important in an agricultural point of view. A great part of its soil is the detritus of the rivers Dawley and Rother and their tributaries. It is well adapted for grazing and arable purposes, and all the family of cereals, legumes, and roots, flourish under a well-directed and active cultivation. The course of cropping will not vary much from that already given for the coal-series: the land is drier, and more turnips grown and consumed on the land by sheep. The turnips are grown on the Northumbrian system with farm-yard manure, bones, and guano. Lime is not extensively used, and chiefly on the wheat fallow, where its application is considered necessary to reduce the mechanical tenacity of the land. Notwithstanding the facilities of railway transit the quantity of lime used does not increase, a preference being given to bone and guano. This is the case generally where the land has been subject to heavy limings for years, more particularly the grass land, where bones have had the happiest effect in improving the herbage.

"I have not," says a large occupier, " made any special experiments with artificial manures, with a view to ascertain the relative value of each, but I have used most of them with various success, and the following are my conclusions:

"For rough, turfy, old grass land; a dressing of from 6 to 8 tons per acre of Middleton Dale lime is the most beneficial. For grass where the herbage is short, and the quality wants improving, from 20 to 30 bushels of bone-dust is the most effectual way of doing it. I have seen a field covered with white clover after the application. Salt applied to wheat in March at the rate of 7 to 10 cwts. per acre, I have found increase the yield of corn from 1 to 2 loads of 3 bushels, although it makes no apparent difference in the amount of straw; but if examined it will be found clearer, brighter, and more healthy, than where salt is not applied."

On Mr. Barrow's farm winter beans are successfully grown, and the Defiance wheat has produced astonishing results. This wheat is gradually finding its way as seed-wheat, and its culii

→ The cost of making drain-tiles in this part of the county, including the first operation of throwing up the clay to drawing the tiles from the kilns and racking them, will average—

S.

d.

vation annually extending, the produce having exceeded 7 quarters per acre.

The estate of Sutton, with Sutton-cum-Duckmanton, comprising the entire parish of Sutton, is on the coal-series, and the property of Robert Arkwright, Esq. This fine estate came into the family possession 27 years ago by purchase, since which time continual improvements have been going forward. The soil is of various kinds and quality, abounding in minerals; the greater part being grazing and meadow land. The course of cropping having been given, it only remains to notice a few novelties observed in the course of these inquiries. According to Farey's Report, the celebrated Mr. Elkington was employed by the then possessor, Job Hart Price, Esq., to drain the estate in 1794 and 1795.* Elkington's system proved a failure, as it generally did on mineral soils, and his claims for compensation being disputed, it was left to reference. The plan of draining first adopted by Mr. Arkwright was the 2-feet-deep Deanstone system with tiles and stones, but it was only partially successful. The quantity of tiles required to accomplish this, and the many acres to be drained, was a serious money consideration. Accordingly it was determined to cut the drains across the lands from 10 to 20 yards apart, increasing the depth to 2 feet 6 inches. It is an opinion of Mr. Arkwright that "rapid percolation is injurious”—that "if the water is in motion only, and never allowed to stagnate all is done that is necessary." This plan was followed several and many years, thousands of tiles saved. Unfortunately for this system, the drains were too shallow and too wide apart. The plan had not a fair trial; but many acres of land chiefly on grass have received great benefit. The cross draining was continued, but the drains were taken deeper and at less width. This plan was followed for some time on the Sutton estate. Presently, and a few years ago, another system of draining was introduced by the proprietor, and as it is novel, and has some claims to originality, I shall give a section of it to make it better understood.

The plan is called ridge-draining, to contradis* Vide Farey's Report, vol. iii. p. 377.

Air drain.

tinguish it from furrow-draining, and may require some further explanation. It was thought desirable that one part of the oldfashioned practice of draining from the bottom, and up to the hill containing the water, should be attended to. Accordingly this plan was to be observed; but some difficulties presented themselves. The field to be drained was old grass, and set out in 5 or 6 yard lands. To drain this up every furrow was impossible, unless at a great expense, and the quantity of tiles required would exhaust any moderate supply. It was therefore proposed that the drains, instead of being taken up the furrows, should be taken up alternate ridges, as given in the section, through the whole field. The arguments advanced in favour of this plan are," that it is as likely to catch the springs by going up the ridge as the furrow;" "that the work is done at half the cost;" "that rain-water falling on the surface and the ridges soon finds its way into the furrow, and from the furrows, by percolation, into the drains." It is obvious that under this plan, where the lands are 5 yards wide, the drains will be 10 yards apart, but the collected waters in the furrows will only be 24 yards from the drains; and if, to use Mr. Arkwright's own words, "the drains won't draw 5 or 6 feet, it is of no use draining at all." This, then, is the theory and practice of Ridge-draining versus Furrow-draining-a principle which appears to answer well, but may require time to confirm it in general estimation. My object in giving this explanation is to note the state of drainage as I find it, and not offer any opinion on its merits. Time will determine its advantages, and time will not wait. Before quitting the subject of draining at Sutton, I will briefly notice a plan pursued by myself in draining a field of cold, wet, and nearly flat close of land, near the edge of the magnesian lime.

Air drain.

Section of Diagonal-draining.

Air drain.

Air drain and carrier.

Air drain and carrier.