small as to endanger the soil by imperfect cultivation. The homesteads of the several farms are suitably commodious; only it were to be desired that the stercorary heaps in the straw-yard, constituting the moving power of agriculture, did not so closely surround the dwellings, thereby promoting all sorts of zymotic influences.

We will now enumerate the several farmeries and their tenants, as they are to be seen on Plate IV.: and to these we must add the Harcourt and Pre-. bendal farms, which, though not belonging to Dr. Lee, are necessary for the agricultural colpo d'occhio of the district in 1862. For ready reference, the following is perhaps the best order in which to take them:—

HARCOURT FARM. Managed by Mr. Walter Crook. This consists of 155 acres of arable land, 25 acres of woodland, and 165 acres of meadow-land and pasture.

LITTLEWORTH FARM. Mr. George Thorpe. The name of this place belies its AngloSaxon lytel-word; it contains 125 acres, of which 107 are in pasturage and 18 arable.

COLD COMFORT FARM. Mr. Peter Hughes. 259 acres, of which 187 are pasture and 72 arable land. These grounds bear upon Whatton Hill and Haydon Mill, which last was assart— that is, land grubbed or cleared of trees and roots-in the reign of King John.

COLD HARBOUR FARM. Mr. Joseph Seamons. This is a patch of patch of very excellent pasture land bordering on the river Thame, to the amount of 221 acres, including the Slattenhams. It trends away to the south, where it breaks into the Hartwell home-grounds.

STONE FARM. Mr. John Monk. This is an old and respectable tenement consisting of 265

acres, of which 180 are arable and 85 pasturage, stretching over Round Hill to the south.

THE CALLEY FARM. Mr. Thomas Monk. This is also one of the earliest tenancies in the Hartwell terriers; it comprises an occupancy of 226 acres, of which 101 are arable and 125 in pasture, enriched by an abundant spring.

SEDROP FARM. Mr. Benjamin Todd. A good old tenement, which has long been occupied from father to son. It consists of 214 acres, 130 of which are pasturage, and the remaining 84 are arable land, looking upon a now rare Village Green.

BISHOPSTONE FARM. Mr. Joseph Stuchbery. This farm was long in the hands of the Horton family, but at Michaelmas 1858 was transferred to the present occupant: it is rather above 140 acres, of which 114 are arable and 26 pasture land. It was originally part of the plunder allotted to the notorious Bishop Odo.*

* This turbulent prelate was loaded with riches, estates, posts, and dignities in profusion by his uterine brother: yet such were his covetousness, ingratitude, insolence, and ambition, that William at length imprisoned him, declaring at the same time that he laid hands on him not as the sacred Bishop of Baieux, but as the temporal Earl of Kent.

vided

PREBENDAL FARM. Mr. John Kersley Fowler. This is a seizin for which the law proa tolerable conveyance; it consists of about 200 acres, of which 105 are arable and 95 in grass. With becoming humility, Mr. Fowler esteemed himself as the occupant of a small farm, till on going to Paris he was exalted by the French as a great land-holder, on their finding that he actually worked 200 acres !

The Lees had formerly a hold of some of the so-called Prebendal land, but by degrees have dropped it. By an indenture dated the 10th of March in the 12th year of George III. (1771), between Sir William Lee of Hartwell on the one part, and William Todd, yeoman, on the other, several "plots, pieces, and parcels of arable lands, ley meadows, and pasture or swerd ground, were seized or possessed of to the baronet, and to his heirs, during the natural lives of John Wilkes (the volcanic politician) and Mary his wife and Abraham Baskerfield, and the life of the longest liver and survivor of them." Of these parcels Mr. Todd of Sedrop obtained a lease by which he was "to have and to hold" them for a term of twelve years, under the following conditions: namely, that he shall not during that term "plough, dig, break up, or convert into tillage any part of the meadow, pasture, or swerd ground, other than what is already ploughed, digged, and converted into tillage." And, in order to manure the same in “ an husbandlike manner where most need shall require," he was directed to "bring, or cause to be brought, and spent upon the premises, three loads of strong stable dung in lieu of every load of straw and every load of hay that shall be sold or carried off the said premises" These, by the plot, are now in the occupancy of Mr. Fowler.

After I had written the several sections connected with this subject which appear in the Edes Hartwelliana (pages 14 to 32), and Chapter X. of the Speculum Hartwellianum, I considered that a still further acquaintance with the physical elements of the district was obtainable, from my having continued to be a resident on the spot; whereby, in the end, the practice and capacity of its tillage might be somewhat scanned and appreciated. I therefore often lightened the passing days by observational rambles and inquiries; and, in the autumn of 1857, I addressed a knot of queries to the holders of the above tenements, who all and severally answered them with equal kindness and promptitude. These said farmeries entirely surround Hartwell House, and they are comparable with each other in reference to surface exposure, tillage, sub-soil basis, seed-charge, and annual produce; for, though much of the land is covered with alluvial matter or drift, its thickness or depth about here cannot render the upper stratum quite independent of its underlying strata. Climate and chorographical position, however, though open to at

tention, must generally be taken "for better for worse." The following are the replies, in alphabetical order, with which I was favoured:

I. What is your general rotation of crops?

CROOK. I farm on the four-course system, that is to say, I begin with turnips, swedes, or vetches, followed by barley sown with clover every eighth year; the intermediate crops, beans, peas, or other pulse. Then wheat, next beans, after which barley, oats, or wheat, as the season or circumstances require.

FOWLER. My land being contiguous to the town of Aylesbury, and being favoured by my hôtel business in finding abundance of manure, I am enabled to crop the land very heavily. I therefore take it as follows:-1st, fallow for swedes or mangels drawn off; 2nd, wheat; 3rd, barley; 4th, beans; 5th, wheat or oats; 6th, clover or trifolium; and 7th, wheat.

HUGHES. Properly clean the land in the spring, that is, in the months of April and May, and in the months of May and June plant swedes, and in July turnips. After the turnips are eaten off in the following March, sow the land with barley or oats, and at the same time sow the clover seed to come in the next summer after the barley is cleared off; then in the month of September plough up the clover leys, and about the first or second week in October plant with wheat, that is, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th crop. The 5th is the same as the 1st crop; the 6th, barley alone; the 7th, beans; the 8th, wheat. This is what we call a four-course system—a clover crop coming once in eight years.

MONK, J. My rotation of crops is according to the usual method of practice here, and which I have known from boyhood, namely, turnips, barley, clover or vetches, peas, beans, wheat.

MONK, T. The method I follow is this: wheat, beans, barley or oats, fallow for turnips or vetches. But the course is sometimes varied for barley after turnips, and sowed with seeds (clover, &c.), followed by wheat.

SEAMONS. Cold Harbour being a grazing farm, and therefore all grass, we have nothing to do with rotation crops, though they are followed around us.

STUCHBERY. Fallow for turnips, then barley or clover; these are followed by wheat, and then beans, or fallows for turnips. On the clay lands, fallow for wheat, then beans, then wheat or barley, and clover.

THORPE. At Littleworth our course was: 1st, turnips and swedes; 2nd, barley, which is frequently sown with clover; 3rd, wheat; and 4th, beans or peas.

TODD. The crop-rotation which I observed is one of general practice in regular tillage. It is-1st, wheat; 2nd, beans and turnips; 3rd, barley and oats; and 4th, clover and fallow.

II. What are your land-dressings for each crop?

CROOK. Artificial and farmyard manure. Barley, after swedes or turnips consumed on the land with sheep, does not require manuring.

FOWLER. For swedes or any root crop I use from 12 to 20 tons of good stable-dung to the acre, ploughed in during the autumn. In the spring, two cwt. of guano to the acre; and, in addition to this, five cwt. of salt per acre for the mangel crop. I have swedes this year 36 inches

prize. I give 14 cwt. of guano to the acre for the

round, which I intend shall compete for a prize. barley, and 10 tons of good dung to the bean crop. HUGHES. Farmyard manure for turnips.

The turnips are eaten off on the ground, which is a first-rate dressing for the barley and clover. The fallow flock is penned on the clover after it has been mown, which is the best dressing for the wheat crop.

MONK, J. Cart-dung for turnips, beans, or vetches. In folding-off the turnips or vetches, I found that a moderate quantity of corn given to the sheep is a great help as a manure.

MONK, T. My dressings are much in the usual way as practised in this practised in this part of the county; that is, folding with sheep for wheat; farmyard manure-from 12 to 15 cartloads per acre-for beans and turnip fallows, and it should be ploughed in soon.

SEAMONS. We occasionally spread a great deal of yard and stable dung, as well as other manures, over the grass lands.

STUCHBERY. Yard-dung for beans, and for wheat sometimes soot. For turnips and roots yard-dung, ashes, and artificial manure. Barley after turnips requires no dress.

THORPE. Farm-yard manure is the general and principal dressing for each crop; and such I used. I believe it is not very much the practice of farmers in this neighbourhood to avail themselves of the aid of artificials.*

TODD. Our practice at Sedrop is to make use of the best farm-yard manure at each dressing, whether for beans, vetches, or roots. The land for wheat or turnips has also a sheep-dressing.

III. How often do you plough for corn, &c. ?

CROOK. The number of times ploughed must depend on the state, condition, and previous crop grown on the land; but it is always ploughed once before sowing. By white crops we mean wheat, barley, and oats, also rye when left for harvest. Green crops include vetches or tares, red and white clover, lucerne, crimson trefoil, trifolium incarnatum, saintfoin, rape, mustard, varieties of grasses, and rye when fed upon by sheep on the land.

FOWLER. About four times for a root crop, once for wheat, once for beans, and twice for barley. But I hope next year to banish the plough of our forefathers, and take to steam culture, so as not to invert the soil. I have already used various agricultural implements of this kind with such success in ploughing, clod-crushing, and rolling, as well as in mowing, hay-making, and threshing, that I am confirmed in my resolution.

HUGHES. In this I have generally proceeded according to the necessary circumstances; but I may say once a year will usually suffice for me.

* This remark of Mr. Thorpe's reminds me of an incident which occurred to my good friend Dr. Buckland. He had been expatiating on the advantages of chemistry in agriculture, when a stalwart Bucks farmer cut in with—" I'm sure we're much obliged to the gentleman for what he says; but hang it, he can never get on without muck!" Certainly the world is under obligation to such inquirers into the proper food for plants as Young, Davy, Liebig, Buckland, and Daubeny; but there is great cry and little wool among most of the wandering philosophists who hold forth upon what they term scientific agriculture, for they boast of improving soils to a pitch never dreamt of in the eternal fitness of things by Nature.