XVII 

 HIGH FARMING IN NORTHUMBRIA 



BEYOND the wolds Yorkshire has many other systems 

 of farming to show, in Cleveland, in the Vale of York, 

 and in the hills that run up into the Pennine Chain ; 

 but consideration of them had to be reserved for another 

 occasion, because they are in the main dependent upon 

 stock-raising and grass, while our attention was being 

 chiefly directed to arable land farming. In North 

 Yorkshire, though there is still plenty of land under 

 the plough in the broad plain through which runs the 

 Great North Road, it is grass land that fills the eye, 

 grass in comparatively small fields surrounded by tall 

 hedges. It is also a cattle country ; and the most 

 striking feature of the district is the high general level 

 of excellence attained by the ordinary farmer's stock, 

 as it is seen without selection in travelling or at any 

 of the local fairs and markets. In the Midlands and 

 in the south many farmers keep high-class stock, even 

 if they do not breed pedigree animals ; but a large 

 proportion of their neighbours seem to possess nothing 

 but misfits, and are content to try to fatten or to milk 

 any kind of cross-bred. To look at the assemblage in 

 the weekly market in one of the smaller towns, it is 

 hard to believe that one is in the country which claims 

 to be the great fountain-head of pure-bred stock, so 

 mean and unimproved is the general average of the 



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