METHOD OF CULTIVATION 37 



was difficult to average 7d. the year through by 

 the sale of cheese. 



The fields are all small, and divided up by high 

 stone walls, which also serve as efficient shelters 

 against the very cold winds. The land varies in 

 quality according to the depth of soil on the lime- 

 stone. The very best pastures are amongst the 

 lower-lying ones, where there are several yards of 

 good soil on the underlying rock; they become 

 poorer as the depth of soil lessens, until high up on 

 the hills the moorland is reached. The country 

 suffers very much in a dry season, as the land soon 

 burns on the limestone. After a bad harvest, as 

 there is no other winter keep, stock has often to be 

 sold at a loss. The hay is never harvested earlier 

 than the second week of July, as the lambing ewes 

 off the moorland have to be kept till late in the 

 spring on the pastures which are to be shut up for 

 mowing. This late harvesting at a time when the 

 weather is more uncertain even than in the southern 

 counties has no doubt partly given rise to the 

 method of storing it in stone barns, which stand in 

 the corners of the fields, and in which the cattle 

 are fed and housed in winter. Stacks are never 

 seen, and carting to the homestead is unusual. 

 The hay is dragged on sledges or sweeps straight to 

 the barns. The men have sometimes to walk as 

 much as a mile or two out to these barns twice daily 

 to feed the stock in the winter. The manure, how- 

 ever, is on the spot for the distant fields, and the 

 system no doubt saves an immense amount of 



