64 BRITISH DAIRYING. 



labour and of wear and tear, the low prices of farm products, 

 the broken character of the seasons, the volume of foreign 

 competition, and so on, will cause things to go on pretty much 

 as they are. 



The grand old pastures which are found in many parts of the 

 British Islands, mostly in the valleys, or in the fen and fylde 

 districts, though also on the rolling surface of some of the 

 Midland counties, and here and there on elevated tablelands 

 of limestone, the splendid grazing lands of Ireland, Scotland, 

 Wales, and many counties in England these, it is to be hoped, 

 are safe against disturbance, though most of them have been 

 under the plough in bygone centuries, in the far-off times of the 

 past when England had a population of six or seven millions, 

 and was a corn-exporting country. It has taken centuries to 

 form these noble swards ; to disturb them would be an act of 

 sacrilege. 



Thin, Light Land. 



There are, however, large areas of land all about the country 

 which no process of top-dressing and good management could 

 ever make into good, permanent pasture or meadow. On the 

 wolds of Yorkshire, the downs of Wiltshire, the sandy plains of 

 Norfolk, and in many other counties such land is to be found. 

 It is as a rule too thin, too light, too unretentive of moisture to 

 make profitable grass land ; and as it is easily cultivated in 

 almost any sort of a season, it is best under the plough in 

 rotation crops. It is on the better light and dry soils that arable 

 dairy-farming may perhaps be found to pay as well as any other 

 sort, if only fair green and root crops can be raised. A good 

 deal of the lightest land, however, is fit only for sheep pasture 

 and not worth cultivating at all. 



Among the more desirable of dairy farms are those which 

 have good land in the valleys for pasture and meadow, and 

 lighter, less rich land elsewhere for tillage. The most desirable 

 ones are those whose land is all good, and some of it dry and 

 friable enough for easy cultivation. But arable dairy-farming, 

 as it is practised in France or Denmark, will hardly become 



