were laid down in 1887. A fair head of cattle on them looked well, and although the herbage was scarce and rather coarse, there were feed and a moderate bottom. Still for such a crop fourteen years seems long to wait. Clearly grass does not lay down well in this district.

Another farm I visited at Braughing was that of Mr. Weir, a Scotch gentleman, who was reported to be one of the best farmers in the neighbourhood. In addition to what he farmed elsewhere, here he held 307 acres of fairly good but somewhat scattered land quite near to the station, at a rent that had been reduced from £1 to 17s. the acre. Mr. Weir, who seemed satisfied with his lot and prospects, had been ten years in occupation of this holding, and said that he was glad that he came south and would not farm again in Scotland. Formerly he was at Little Munden, which he called The World's End, but left because the owners of his farm would not lower his rent. He offered 23s. an acre for it, which was refused. Now it was let for 15s.! He thought that landlords did wrong ten years ago to send away the sitting tenants rather than give them a reduction. Farmers now-a-days had to pay up and look pleasant,' but he thought that they were doing.' When speaking of farmers, however, he meant Scotchmen and Cornishmen round about there, the latter of whom, he remarked, liked to have a fat farm to start on.

Of Mr. Weir's 307 acres at Braughing 70 were permanent pasture, 40 sainfoin, 4 lucerne which did pretty well, and 100 wheat. Of this last crop he said that by getting a return of four and a half quarters to the acre and selling the straw it could still be grown at a profit. Of potatoes he had thirty acres on a chalk subsoil, from which last he had realised £30 the acre; but in some seasons year -wet ones, I suppose they had been so bad that nobody would take them away. To his mangolds he gave 5 cwt. of superphosphate and 1 cwt. of sulphate of ammonia to the acre, with the result that he lifted forty tons to the acre of root. These artificials were, I think, in addition to

London manure, of which he bought a great deal at a cost of 1s. 4d. or 1s. 6d. a ton plus 2s. 5d. railway carriage. In Glasgow, he said, such manure cost 8s. or even 10s. the ton.

Mr. Weir had a herd of cows, some of which he bred from a Shorthorn bull, and sent milk to London twice a day. These were kept in an admirable building where everything was arranged for convenience and to save labour, and all the drains were disinfected with carbolic. Up to the time that I saw them towards the end of June, his cows had only been out of their shed to drink, as Mr. Weir seemed to think that they did better under cover. He fed them upon a mixture of potatoes, pulped mangold, brewer's grains from London, wheat, oats, and ground maize. Also he used a meal compounded of maize, beans, and light oats, which were all ground upon the premises. The beans, and of course the maize, he purchased. The water supply upon this farm was excellent-a great consideration in Hertfordshire-being delivered from a spring by gravitation. Also there was a ram that pumped up as much as might be required.

Of labour he said that they were paying 5s. a week more than they used to do, but being near the village got sufficient hands. Cottages, of which he rented three good ones, were scarce and bad. There was a good deal of trouble about labour which was the worst feature in the local farming outlook. He thought that the result of our system of education was to send the people from the country to the towns.

One of the most deeply interesting agricultural experiments ever carried out over a series of years in England, is that which has been in progress since 1861-more than a generation-upon Blount's Farm, near Sawbridgeworth, in Hertfordshire. On our way thither we passed a beautiful house known as Hadham Palace that once belonged to the Bishops of London. It is situated in a deep hollow backed by trees, so that the traveller looks down on it from the road that skirts the tableland. The effect of this threegabled, ancient dwelling, with its tiled roofs, dormer windows,

and walls covered by an abundance of creeping plants, was singularly charming. Close to it stands the church, with its quaint, leaden spire and a wall-encircled graveyard dotted with white tombstones. Between the church and house is a verdant lawn, while in front of it lie the gardens, and, falling sheer from the roadside to a flat tableland lined out with elms, the steep slope of a hill.

When Mr. Prout, the father of the present proprietor, became possessed of Blount's Farm of 450 acres, it was in such a low condition that it was said of it that it would starve a donkey.' Also, it was undrained, made up of small enclosures, and cumbered with many fences. Now all this has been changed. Indeed, I never saw a better arranged or, I may add, in its own fashion a better cultivated holding. The fields were large, averaging perhaps thirty or forty acres, and pierced with convenient roads; the fences were low and well trimmed, and the drainage, that is done with the steam mole, a system of which I hope to speak in due course, was perfect. The peculiarity of Mr. Prout's farm is this. He keeps no cattle and no sheep, he grows nothing but cereals, clover, beans, and some mangolds for the horses, and year by year he sells everything off the soil that it produces. Further, he has no scruple about growing wheat or other cereals for many years in succession upon the same field, a thing hitherto supposed to be impossible to do in England at a profit. Nor does he replace the grain and straw sold off the farm by stable manure imported from elsewhere. Yet he makes his farming pay.

The experienced reader will naturally ask how this can be done. Here is the explanation. Four years after Mr. Prout, senior, who had farmed in Canada for ten years, took the holding in hand in a desperate state, the happy thought occurred to him to consult the late Dr. Augustus Voelcker, perhaps the greatest agricultural chemist of his day. In 1865 he submitted to him samples of the soil of Blount's Farm. Dr. Voelcker analysed these carefully, and in his report pointed out what elements should be added from time to time, to