204 VEGETATION OF THE PEAK DISTRICT [CH. 



THE ARABLE LAND 



In previous accounts of the vegetation of districts in Great 

 Britain, it has been customary to give a table, taken from the 

 official Agricultural Returns, showing the amount of the various 

 types of the agricultural land of the county in which the district 

 is situated. In the case of the Peak District, such a course is 

 undesirable, as the land consists of portions of five counties and 

 is very far from being typical of any one of them. Of the various 

 English counties, the Peak District most nearly resembles West- 

 morland (cf. Lewis, 1904 a : 316) in its high percentage of 

 uncultivated land, and in its low percentage of arable land, 

 especially of land under wheat. 



At the present time, it is possible to sub-divide the culti- 

 vated land of the British Isles into three zones (cf. Moss, 1907 a 

 or b: 21, 59, 66). The lowest of these zones, occurring as a rule 

 below fifty feet (15 m.) above sea level, consists of alluvial land : 

 in the west of England (Moss, 1907 a or b : 21), this alluvial 

 zone of cultivation is nearly all under permanent pasture ; but 

 in East Anglia, it is nearly all under arable cultivation, with 

 wheat entering into the rotation. The intermediate zone, 

 situated as a rule below six or seven hundred feet (183 or 

 213 m.) above sea level, consists largely of permanent pasture 

 in the west and north of England : it shows a higher pro- 

 portion of arable land, with wheat entering into the rotation, 

 in the Midlands and in the south of England ; and it consists 

 very largely of arable land, with wheat, in East Anglia. The 

 uppermost zone, situated as a rule above six or seven hundred 

 feet above sea-level, consists largely and in many localities 

 almost wholly of permanent pasture ; and in the arable land 

 that actually occurs, wheat does not enter into the rotation, 

 or, if so, it is a crop of a precarious nature. 



In the Peak District, no zone of alluvial cultivation occurs ; 

 but it has been found possible to show on the map the inter- 

 mediate (or wheat) zone and the uppermost (or no-wheat) zone : 

 a transitional zone is indicated on the map by stippling. There 

 can be no doubt that the dividing line between the wheat and 

 the no-wheat zones is drawn on the vegetation maps with con- 

 siderable accuracy. In several cases, upland fields of wheat 



