support the name. Yet Dorsetshire is not generally a
well-wooded county, though much fine timber appears in the richer soils,
in some of the sheltered valleys of the chalk district, and more
especially upon the Greensand. About three-fourths of the total area is
under cultivation, and of this nearly five-eighths is in permanent
pasture, while there are in addition about 26,000 acres of hill
pasturage; the chalk downs being celebrated of old as sheep-walks.
Wheat, barley and oats are grown about equally. Turnips occupy nearly
three-fourths of the average under green crops. Sheep are largely kept,
though in decreasing numbers. The old horned breed of Dorsetshire were
well known, but Southdowns or Hampshires are now frequently preferred.
Devons, shorthorns and Herefords are the most common breeds of cattle.
Dairy farming is an important industry.

_Other Industries._--The quarries of Isles of Portland and Purbeck are
important. The first supplies a white freestone employed for many of the
finest buildings in London and elsewhere. Purbeck marble is famous
through its frequent use by the architects of many of the most famous
Gothic churches in England. A valuable product of Purbeck is a white
pipeclay, largely applied to the manufacture of china, for which purpose
it is exported to the Potteries of Staffordshire. Industries, beyond
those of agriculture and quarrying, are slight, though some
shipbuilding is carried on at Poole, and paper is made at several
towns. Other small manufactures are those of flax and hemp in the
neighbourhood of Bridport and Beaminster, of bricks, tiles and pottery
in the Poole district, and of nets (braiding, as the industry is called)
in some of the villages. There are silk-mills at Sherborne and
elsewhere. There are numerous fishing stations along the coast, the
fishing being mostly coastal. There are oyster beds in Poole Harbour.
The chief ports are Poole, Weymouth, Swanage, Bridport, and Lyme Regis.
The harbour of refuge at Portland, under the Admiralty, is an important
naval station, and is fortified.

_Communications._--The main line of the London & South Western railway
serves Gillingham and Sherborne in the north of the county. Branches of
this system serve Wimborne, Poole, Swanage, Dorchester, Weymouth and
Portland. The two last towns, with Bridport, are served by the Great
Western railway; the Somerset & Dorset line (Midland and South Western
joint) follows the Stour valley by Blandford a