INTRODUCTION 21 



they were reaped, the field was left to grass itself, the land being 

 considered " grass proud " ; such a strong prejudice prevailed against 

 " artificial grasses over all the county, that it may be almost hterally 

 said they are never sown." The humidity of the climate was such 

 that in 7 to 10 years the moss so overmastered the grass that it 

 became necessary to repeat the process. 



In the Eden Valley from Kirkby Stephen to Temple Sowerby, 

 after a second crop of oats, part of the field was fallowed and treated 

 with 75 bushels of lime to the acre, and to the rest dung was applied, 

 and crops of potatoes and turnips were taken from it, which were 

 fed to the cattle and sheep in winter ; the fallow was sown with 

 rye in September, and the turnip and potato portion was sown in the 

 following spring, with barley and grass seeds, composed of clovers 

 and seeds shaken from the hay. Near Kendal a great quantity of 

 potatoes were grown, and a custom prevailed round there and several 

 of the larger villages, for the farmers to plough and manure a field and 

 then let parcels of it off to labourers in the town who planted it with 

 potatoes and took all risk of the crop, paying at the rate of 2/- per 

 perch or " foe " ; by 1812 the price per " foe " had risen to from 3/9 

 to 4/9. Round Milnthorpe, Burton, Farleton, and Kirkby Lonsdale 

 " it is not quite so rare to see a few acres of wheat," wrote Adam 

 Walker, describing his trip to Kirkby Lonsdale in 1791, " the 

 valley consists principally of grass farms, which is certainly a wise 

 conformity to the climate and the country : for crops of corn must be 

 very uncertain where so much rain falls and where the winter sets in 

 so early. Here is, however, some tolerably-looking wheat, and the oats 

 and barley are luxuriant. Notwithstanding this, I cannot say but 

 I am almost sorry to see in the north of Lancashire and Westmorland 

 lands made arable by great industry, which nature designed only for 

 breeding cattle and sheep." The field was summer fallowed for the 

 wheat crop and manured with dung or lime, the seed was sown in 

 September at the rate of four bushels per acre, being soaked in brine 

 or chamber lye and dried in lime previous to being sown. Pease, 

 beans, turnips, clover, or rye grass were but little cultivated, but 

 rape was sown in smaU quantities with great success and cabbages 

 had been tried round Kendal. In the first quarter of the century 

 small quantities of flax were still grown in the Bottom of Westmorland 



