420 Report on the Afjriculturc of Cumberland, 



grasses, and to this end the mattock, the scythe, and the sickle are 

 often called into requisition. Lands which have been reclaimed 

 from the moors and commons naturally produce g-orse and heath : 

 these spring up years after the ground has been reclaimed, and 

 have to be eradicated as they appear. Docks are generally up- 

 rooted by means of a two-pronged instrument thrust into the 

 ground, and thistles by being persistently cut with a scythe or 

 sickle. 



Various plans have been adopted for the improvement of pas- 

 tures by surface dressing. In some instances there is a little farm- 

 yard manure to spare ; or the farmer, if near a town, can procure 

 a few tons in addition now and then. But these are exceptional 

 cases, so much manure being now required for the turnip crop. 

 As the breadth of grazing land is extended, the resources of the 

 dunghill will become much more limited, unless, indeed, the 

 arable land is made to produce proportionately larger crops. 

 Road-scrapings, ditch-scourings, refuse salt, earth, and in fact 

 any substance that can be laid hold of Avill do good as a surface 

 dressing on pasture ; and the industrious farmer collects every- 

 thing available that comes under his notice. The extreme price 

 of coals during the past three years has almost entirely precluded 

 farmers from using lime as a manure. A few years ago, when 

 agriculturists were only considered tp be second class who did not 

 lime a certain portion of their land every year, lime could be 

 had at the public kilns for 2s. Gd. per Cumberland cart of 20 to 

 25 cwts., now a cartload is charged at Qs. to 7^. There ai'e still 

 farmers whose leases contain a clause stating that so much lime 

 has to be used each year, and it is almost unnecessary to add that 

 these restrictions are very hard upon the occupiers who at the 

 time they signed their leases had little conception what a few 

 years would bring forth. Conversing with one of this class the 

 other da}^, I was apprized of the fact that at the time he entered 

 upon his occupation he could obtain coal-dust for use in the lime- 

 kiln at Sd. per cartload, — now the price is 2s., or eight times the 

 value it then was ! On the mountain pastures and sheep runs, 

 lime has a wonderful effect. The intelligent observer may trace 

 its outlines upon the mountain sides when at a distance of many 

 miles, and so much is the herbage sweetened by its application, 

 that the dressed parts are dotted over with hardy Herdwicks 

 and Blackfaces so long as there is the tiniest blade of grass, while 

 the undressed portions are quite rough with coarse herbage. 

 Bones and special manures have also their advocates, especially 

 the former. These supply food to the exhausted grass-plants for 

 a long period, so that they become more vigorous and robust, 

 throwing rootlets 'into the soil in all directions ; and it is a well- 

 known fact that where there is an increase in rootlets below there 



