20 WESTMORLAND AGRICULTURE, 1800-1900 



of old land when it was covered with moss was " ploughed and sown 

 with corn in order to prepare it for grass." " When the land has 

 produced a few crops of corn, and it is judged that the moss is quite 

 destroyed, it is left to itself ; and such is the himiidity of the climate, 

 and so strong is the vegetation of weeds and natural grasses, that the 

 very first crop has, by actual experiment, been found to produce 

 120 stones of hay per acre, weighed from the field." " There are not 

 sufficient oats grown within the county," wrote Nicolson and Burn, 

 " but they receive many loads thereof every week out of Cumberland, 

 and some out of the counties of Lancaster, York, and Durham ; the 

 land in Westmorland yielding better for grazing. And, therefore, they 

 breed a large number of cattle yearly, and sell them out at three and 

 four years of age." In 1801, when Napoleon had closed the foreign 

 ports against us, the people of Ravenstonedale broke up meadow and 

 common land for ploughing, and some of the dalesmen went to New- 

 castle for Dantzic rye to relieve the privation and suffering in the 

 parish. Pringle estimated that there were not 20,000 acres under 

 crops in the whole county in 1794, and large quantities of grain had 

 to be imported to supplement the shortage, from Cumberland and 

 Lancashire, the great markets for which were at Penrith and Burton, 

 till 1819 when, on the opening of the canal from Lancaster to Kendal, 

 the grain inspector was transferred from Burton to Kendal, which, 

 in consequence of the extensive inclosures in the surrounding districts, 

 became a large market for grain of every description. 



Westmorland with Cumberland formed the sixth Maritime Dis- 

 trict for fixing the price of corn. 



The prevalent system was to have a white crop every year : 

 oats, barley, oats, or oats, oats, oats, till the moss was judged to 

 be killed. The land was ploughed in March and sown with 

 oats about the first of April with 7^ Winchester bushels per 

 customary acre, to be reaped about the middle of September, a fair 

 crop yielding about 60 bushels per acre. After ploughing about 

 Candlemas, what farmyard manure there happened to be was applied 

 to the field at the rate of 80 to 100 carts per acre and ploughed in during 

 April and sown with four bushels of barley or bigg to the acre, a good 

 crop yielding about 54 bushels. The third year, after a ploughing in 

 April, oats were again sown, without seeds of any description, and after 



