% 
VIIt| CULTIVATED LAND: CULTURE ASSOCIATIONS 201 
very edge of a Calluna moor, bright green permanent pasture 
which shows no tendency to revert to its original state (ef. 
figure 24). 
During the course of this survey, the process of reclamation 
has been observed in a few cases. The plan adopted was as 
follows. The original vegetation, whether heather (Calluna 
vulgaris) or grasses (Nardus stricta, etc.) was first burned, and 
then cleared of large stones. The land was afterwards ploughed 
and limed, and finally planted with oats. The field sometimes 
remained a patch of arable land; but more frequently, grasses 
were sown in the second or third years, and the land kept down 
to permanent pasture. In some cases, but by no means all, the 
land was also drained by means of trenches and agricultural 
drain pipes. Where the original land was covered with shallow 
peat, the peat was flaked off before the land was ploughed. 
Deep peat on these uplands is practically never reclaimed ; 
and hence the soil of the cultivated uplands is rarely black, 
though it may be of a very dark brown colour owing to its 
high humus-content. 
Even on the upland tracts which are now almost wholly 
cultivated, it is frequently possible to form definite and accurate 
ideas regarding the nature of the natural plant associations 
which were formerly characteristic of the places in question ; 
for some of the indigenous species often linger in some not 
wholly unsuitable localities. Such places are the grassy or 
heathy banks and sides of the roads and lanes which are not 
much frequented, quarries, gravel pits, refuse heaps of old 
mines, old hedgerows, hedgebanks, hedgebottoms, and the banks 
of streams. Although such localities usually contain a mixture 
of indigenous and alien plants, it is seldom impossible to decide 
to which of these categories a given species belongs. 
The farms of the district are of small size, and rarely consist 
of more than forty or fifty acres (1620 or 2025 ares). It is said 
by some of the farmers that rather more land was under the 
plough some forty years ago; but the district as a whole has 
never been important in the matter of corn growing. Before 
the days of cheap flour, probably each farm produced its own 
oatmeal at least; but there is no evidence to show that 
any crop of the district was ever of more than domestic 
importance. 
