40 
Having now exhausted the catalogue in as complete a manner 
as the limited time at my disposal for the work would admit, a few 
brief concluding remarks may not be out of place. In Bailey, 
Culley, and Pringle’s Survey of the Agriculture of Northumberland, 
Cumberland, and Westmorland, published about 1794, under the 
auspices of the Board of Agriculture of that day, we are told of an 
old farmer at Uldale, who when asked why he and his neighbours 
did not sow artificial grasses more largely, replied :—“ Lord, sur, 
we hev’ nea ’casion ; oor lan’s naterally girs-prood.” The prejudice 
against artificial grasses has long since died out—excellent crops of 
‘seeds’ may be seen around us; but in my opinion our meadows and 
permanent pastures are susceptible of great improvement. It has 
been too much the fashion to look upon mere bulk, ora ‘good swathe’ 
without reference to quality, as the one thing needful. I have 
endeavoured to distinguish the good from the bad constituents in 
our local turf. It is satisfactory to know—after an examination of 
the living specimens of grass exhibited by England’s most eminent 
seedsmen at the Royal Show in Carlisle last year—that all the finest 
and most valuable species are to be found indigenous around us; 
and it did not escape the notice of the shrewdly intelligent gentle- 
men, to whom was delegated the task of examining our crack farms 
entered for competition, that most of the pests of the farm were 
hardly known in Cumberland and Westmorland. A facetious 
acquaintance of mine once observed to me, ‘‘Take a yard of cloth 
of any description—carpeting if you like—and lay it before a draper. 
He will at a glance be able to indicate to you the component parts 
both of the warp and woof—their probable value—quality—and 
durability. Place a square yard of the turf of his meadow or 
pasture before an ordinary farmer, and what answer would you get 
from him with respect to its vegetable covering?” Let this ignor- 
ance be removed—the process I may say has already commenced— 
let the agriculturist be enabled to discriminate the good from the 
bad, leaving it to his practical skill to solve the problem of 
encouraging the former element and suppressing the latter. 
Before resuming my seat, I cannot forbear expressing my deep 
obligation to two venerable and worthy gentlemen, the Rev. R. 
