VIIl] CULTIVATED LAND : CULTURE ASSOCIATIONS 201 



very edge of a Calluna moor, bright green permanent pasture 

 which shows no tendency to< revert to its original state (cf. 

 figure 24). 



During the course of this survey, the process of reclamation 

 has been observed in a few cases. The plan adopted was as 

 follows. The original vegetation, whether heather {Calluna 

 vulgaris) or grasses (Nardus stricta, etc.) was first burned, and 

 then cleared of large stones. The land was afterwards ploughed 

 and limed, and finally planted with oats. The field sometimes 

 remained a patch of arable land ; but more frequently, gi'asses 

 were sown in the second or third years, and the land kept down 

 to permanent pasture. In some cases, but by no means all, the 

 land was also drained by means of trenches and agricultural 

 drain pipes. Where the original land was covered with shallow 

 peat, the peat was flaked off before the land was ploughed. 

 Deep peat on these uplands is practically never reclaimed ; 

 and hence the soil of the cultivated uplands is rarely black, 

 though it ma}^ be of a very dark brown colour owing to its 

 high humus-content. 



Even on the upland tracts which are now almost wholly 

 cultivated, it is frequently possible to form definite and accurate 

 ideas regarding the nature of the natural plant associations 

 which were formerly characteristic of the places in question ; 

 for some of the indigenous species often linger in some not 

 wholly unsuitable localities. Such places are the grassy or 

 heathy banks and sides of the roads and lanes which are not 

 much frequented, quarries, gravel pits, refuse heaps of old 

 mines, old hedgerows, hedgebanks, hedgebottoms, and the banks 

 of streams. Although such localities usually contain a mixture 

 of indigenous and alien plants, it is seldom impossible to decide 

 to which of these categories a given species belongs. 



The farms of the district are of small size, and rarely consist 

 of more than forty or fifty acres (1620 or 2025 ares). It is said 

 by some of the farmers that rather more land was under the 

 plough some forty years ago ; but the district as a whole has 

 never been important in the matter of com growing. Before 

 the days of cheap flour, probably each farm produced its own 

 oatmeal at least ; but there is no evidence to show that 

 any crop of the district was ever of more than domestic 

 importance. 



