with 20 gallons of potatoes, makes a rich fattening mess for pigs."

P. 67. "This grain has been chiefly grown in black, moory, moist soils; the tillage, culture, and harvest, the same as for oats."

TURNEPS.-P. 67. "The commencement of the grand preparation of the land for this crop, is announced early in June, by the whole district being enveloped in smoke, exhibiting at once the very general establishment of the turnip culture throughout the county, and the almost universal assent as to the utility of the practice of paring and burning for them many farmers would despair of success in the attempt to get a crop, without their beat ashes, nor do they think the benefit is confined to the turnip crop only, but shrewdly anticipate its good effects in one or two succeeding crops of corn. The ground, which is generally a lay from four to seven years or more old, having been stripped or velled, is dragged, harrowed, and rolled, then briskly harrowed a second time with two horses, which operation (provincially running tabs) is executed with a rapidity that would astonish the farmers in those counties where they use three or four heavy fat snail-paced horses. Here, a boy mounts one of the two light horses used, for the purpose, and keeps them at a smart trot until the earth is entirely shaken from the roots, and the weeds are made light and fit for burning; and now all hands, men, women, boys and girls, with short-headed rakes, having long wooden teeth set about three inches asunder, begin at the leeward side of the field, and rake the light well-harrowed tabs into small heaps; a wad of straw, or a bit of furze, is put into each heap on the windward side, and just before they go to dinner, they set fire to all the heaps got together in the morning. In the afternoon the business of raking, priming, and firing, goes on until a late hour in the evening, for it is a kind of harvest work, bustle bustle, for a month or six weeks.

"They are very careful that this process of incineration shall be carried on by a smothered heat, so that the roots appear rather charred, than consumed by flame."-In this particular, the men of Cornwall have much merit.

CULTIVATED HERBAGE.-P. 83. "A mixture of red clover, from 5 lb. to 8 lb., of trefoil from 2lb. to 4lb. and from six to ten gallons of rye-grass, or eaver, are the grass-seeds most usually sown with either barley or oats in the spring, for a hay crop the next year, after which, the lands are left in lay during two or three years. Many farmers add to the above, from 2 lb. to 4 lb. of white clover, and some few, a pound or two of rib-grass, by way of providing for the de

ficiency

ficiency of pasture when the red clover fails, which it naturally does after the second year."

GRASS LANDS." Natural Meadows."-P. 89. "The lands in Cornwall which come under this description, are to be met with in the vicinity of towns and villages, on sheltered slopes, in valleys, level and moist situations, on the banks of the great rivers; and most farmers select a field or two near their homesteads, which they appropriate to the feeding their calves, or milch cows, early in the spring."

Natural Pasture.-P. 39. "The natural pastures consist of the uncultivated lan is, which in Cornwall are distinguished by the names of moors, downs, crofts, and wastes. Nature has clothed .hem with two species of furze; with ferns, heath, and the poorer kinds of grasses, which are depastured by cattle, sheep, and goats; to the latter of which animals a great proportion of the coarser lands, particularly in the mining districts, are adapted."

"Cultivated Pasture."-P. 90." These are such as have borne two or three successive crops of corn, with the last of which grass-seeds have been sown: they remain as pastures from two to three, or five years, before they are again broken up for corn."

HOPS.-P. 83. "Have been much grown in Roseland, but the culture is on the decline: the duties increasing, and hops from Kent and Hampshire finding their way here, the Cornish hop-grower is discouraged; for except he can sell at 15d. per lb. it is a losing crop; half a pound to a hill is a great crop."

ORCHARDS.-P. 93. "In sheltered situations, many of the farms are furnished with orchards; but I am sorry to find, that in some of the western parts of the county, the orchards have of late years been very much neglected, and that the cultivation of them in general does not prevail so much as in Devonshire."

It is a well established fact, I believe, that the climature of Cornwall is ungenial to orchard produce; unless in the more sheltered parts of its eastern quarter.

HORSES.-P. 153. "Few horses in Cornwall are kept for ostentation, or to live in idleness and luxury. The gentleman's horse often disdains not to draw the cart or the plough, when not wanted for the coach or the chariot, thus the produce of his labour far exceeds his maintenance. The farm horses are excellently adapted to the hilly surface of the county; they are rather small, but hardy and active, and it may be truly said, they eat no idle oats. Most farmers keep up their stock, by breeding a colt or two annually; but I believe that one eighth of the horses used for the

saddle

saddle and draught, are brought into the county by eastern dealers."

CATTLE.-Breed.-P. 140. "The native cattle of Cornwall are very small, of a black colour, short horned, coarseboned, and large offal; very hardy. There are certainly cattle now, in different parts of the county, which partake of the above qualities. I have met with black cows and bulls of a small size, weighing perhaps from three to four hundred."

This is, to me, peculiarly interesting intelligence. It sufficiently shows that the three more mountainous portions of this island have been, beyond the ken of history or tradition, inhabited by Celtic tribes, and black cattle:—while the lower, more genial and fertile parts, have been occupied by different races of men and animals.

It has been said, with what degree of truth I cannot affirm, that, in every mountainous tract of Europe, a dialect of the Celtic language is spoken.-May we venture to suggest, on such slender evidence, that the CELTIC TRIBES were, aboriginally, the natural,—or, by long-established habits, in far distant times, became the voluntary INHABITANTS of MOUNTAINS; and that black cattle and goats have ever, or long, been their accompanying domestic animals?

P. 139. Two opinions prevail in Cornwall, on the breed of cattle for slaughter; the one is, that symmetry of shape, proportional length, breadth, and roundness, with a fine bone, thin hide, and small offal, with the colour of a bloodred, form the basis on which the properties of health, hardiness, and an aptitude to fatten, principally depend. The prime North Devon cattle comprise these essentials, in a degree sufficient to satisfy any breeder or feeder of reasonable expectations.

6

"The other opinion is in favour of the boney system. 'Give me,' says the still prejudiced farmer, a snug tight bullock, with a stout frame of bone, to build my flesh and fat upon; and a good thick hide to keep out the cold and wet: they be strong and hardy, Sir, cost little or nothing in keep, range the moors, live and thrive on furze and heath in summer, and in winter too, with a little straw; get as fat as moles when put on turnips; the butcher likes 'mun (them); they tallow well, and hide tells in the tanner's scale. Such is the colloquial information you will get from the more rustic sons of agriculture, who form a pretty numerous class in Cornwall. As to Leicestershire lines of beauty, they tell you, in homestead plainness, they won't do here;' and to argue with them, would be taking the bull by the horns."

There appears, to me, to be more good sense and practical knowledge

N n

knowledge, in those remarks, than the Reporter of them would seem to be aware of. The occupiers of the Cornish mountains, having nearly lost their native breed, require a hardy race to repair their loss;-such as they can rear on mountain pasturage;-not a dainty animal that requires softand sweet herbage, to gratify its palate, and pamper its delicate constitution.

Markets for Cattle.-P. 138. "The markets in the different districts have some influence in governing the size of cattle, large meat not being so saleable as smaller. A bullock of from three to five hundred weight, is more marketable than one of eight or nine hundred weight. The larger breed of cattle, of which there are great numbers in Cornwall, are annually sold to graziers and contractors; to the former, in store state, to be driven into Somersetshire, or other grazing counties; and to the latter, when fattened on turnips or summer grass, to be slaughtered at Plymouth for the Navy."

Here, we perceive the true economy, or plan of management, of the Cornish cattle farmer. He rears cattle on mountain pasturage, to be fatted on the marshlands, and other rich grazing grounds, in more genial climatures.

On the circumscribed plots of low lands, in Cornwall, let the occupiers choose their own plans of husbandry.

DAIRY.-P. 140.. "It has been already stated, that the 'dairy does not constitute a very important department in the husbandry of Cornwall. The cows appropriated to this use, are mostly of the Cornish or Devon breeds; there are also many Jersey und Guernsey cows, their milk yielding a cream of a richer colour and quality.

"My intelligent informant, Mr. Sickler, tells me, that in the western part of the county, from the river Hayle to the Land's End, the greater part of the high land is appropriated to the keeping of cows; the soil is the black growan, the farms from 20 to 60 acres of grass land, with large portions of waste, which are called crofts; these crofts are kept up all the summer for the cows, into which they are not turned till about the first week in November, and remain there until about three weeks before they calve, when they are brought to the fields, which having been kept up, are now full of grass: this feed, with an oaten sheaf now and then, serve to raise their milk; but they have no other dry meat, nor turnips through the winter, while in the crofts; the grass there being plenty and of good quality.

"The farmers whose property these cows are, and who also keep them in the above manner, have nothing to do with their produce excepting the calf; for should a farmer

possess

possess twenty cows, he lets them, nearly all out, to labourers and poor people, at 6l. or 8l. per cow, for seven or eight months; four, six, eight, or ten cows to each person. The hirer pays his cow-rent by milk and butter, for which he finds a ready market and sale in this populous district. When a cow approaches her time of calving, the farmer is obliged to take her, and provide the person with another, flush in milk. These cow-renters generally have a piece of ground allotted them by the farmer, on which they grow potatoes; with these, and with the scalded milk which has yielded cream for the butter, they fatten a great many young porkers."

Mr. Worgan touches on the Cornish method of making butter, from scalded cream. But I perceive nothing in his account that would add, beneficially, to the practice of West Devonshire.

SHEEP.-Breed.-P. 148. "Curiosity induced me to see what they still call the true Cornish breed of sheep: the animals pointed out to me as such, have grey faces and legs, coarse short thick necks, stand lower before than behind, narrow backs, flattish sides, a fleece of coarse wool, weighing about two or three pounds, of eighteen ounces; and their mutton seldom fat-from eight to ten pounds per quarter.

"From the various crosses which have heen made by rams, introduced at different periods into Cornwall, of the Exmoor, Dartmoor, North and South Devon, Dorset, Gloucester, and Leicester sorts, a pure Cornish sheep is now a rare animal.”

P. 151. "On the towans, or sand-hillocks upon some parts of the north coast, Peran-Sand, Gwythian, Phillack, and Sennan-Green, they have a small compact sheep, the mutton of which is of a peculiarly superior flavour, weighing about eight pounds per quarter; the fleece is of finer wool, approaching the quality of South Down; the fleece may weigh two or three pounds. The grass of the towans is of a short sweet nature; but in the mornings and evenings innumerable small turbinated snails come out from the sand, on which these sheep seem to make a delicious repast, and on which it is said they get fat. I saw them myself eating these snails."-This is interesting information.

"The mongrel flocks that live upon the downs, heaths, and moors of this county, summer and winter, are a hardy race, weighing about 10 or 12 lbs. per quarter; the mutton very good; bearing fleeces from 2 lb. to 4 lb. each, of moderate quality; some have horns: they are not nice in feeding, for I have seen them cropping the furze and the heath, as well as depasturing the grasses; they are as active as Nn 2 deer,