42 Farming of Lancashire. 



1841 



1842) 



1843/ 



1844 



1845 



1846 



1847 



1848 



Total 



Besides this, great quantities from Africa have been imported 

 by different people, and of course it is impossible to say how much 

 has been sold for farming purposes in Lancashire, but there is 

 no doubt that a very large quantity has been, and continues to be, 

 used. Town-manure is by no means collected and made avail- 

 able as it might be ; the difficulty of transporting it is the great 

 obstacle to the use of it. If we were as careful in this matter as 

 the Chinese, we should have in the large and numerous towns of 

 this county mines of wealth from which the produce of the soil 

 might be increased to more than double what it is. From Liver- 

 pool it is taken down by the Leeds and Liverpool Canal as far as 

 Rufford, and from Manchester by the Bridgewater Canal to 

 various parts of Cheshire, and to Stretford, Worsley, and Chat- 

 moss in Lancashire, to the amount of 20,000 tons in a year, and 

 the practice is greatly on the increase. The cost from Man- 

 chester, exclusive of cartage to and from the canal, is about two- 

 thirds of a penny, or for short distances l^d. per ton per mile. 

 It has recently been tried in a liquid state and applied to the 

 land adjoining the canal by means of a hose — this experiment 

 gives so far every reasonable prospect of a successful issue. Con- 

 siderable quantities are taken to Chat-moss by the river I r well, 

 which flows to the south side of the moss, and the cost of trans- 

 port is rather lighter than on the canal. 



Irrigation. — This mode of improving grass lands has been 

 little tried in this county, and when attempted, not on any ex- 

 tended or scientific plan. Mr. Dickson, in quoting from the 

 ''original Report" on this subject, says, ''It is a matter of 

 astonishment that so rich a source of improvement has been 

 hitherto so much neglected ;" and the same remark is still ap- 

 plicable. 



In a country like this, where rivers and rivulets abound, there 

 would be comparatively little difficulty or expense in throwing 

 the fertilising streams on the land. Mr. Logan pointed out to 

 me some meadow land in Barton which had been irrigated with 

 very satisfactory results, when the land was under-drained pre- 

 viously ; it had produced a double crop : and without under- 

 draining, irrigation ought never to be thought of. In this instance, 



