24 



WESTMORLAND AGRICULTURE, 1800-1900 



Winchester measure — peats cost 1/6 per cart in summer and 2/- in 

 winter for the same measure. 



In the adjoining parish of Ashy the state of agriculture was 

 better; the same writer (Robinson) gives the population of it as being, 

 in 1787, 388, and in 1801, 357, the decrease he attributed to some 

 very small farms being " consolidated into larger ones, which tends 

 greatly to diminish the population of the country, and wUl in time 

 prove injurious to the value of property in general ; another cause is 

 that now two horses are used to a plough instead of four and a 

 driver." 



Careful records had been kept of the barometer and thermometer 

 in the parish by W. Fairer from January, 1791, to January, 1799 : — 



There were 36 property owners in the parish and 28 tenants, 

 the enclosed and cultivated land was about 3,440 acres, and the rent 

 7/- to £3 an acre with an average about 14/- per acre. The greatest 

 part of the land was in pasture, and the com grown would not serve 

 the inhabitants, there being only five families that grew more than 

 sufficient for their own use ; oats, peas, beans, and barley had been 

 raised from time immemorieil ; the tithe for barley in 1703 amounted 



