CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES 203 



them within bounds. They make very good park 

 sheep with their elegance and activity, and like many 

 other of the hill breeds they are singularly free from 

 foot-rot, and answer well when continually run over 

 a wide area of poor grass without that regular change 

 of pasturage which the lowland sheep farmers consider 

 necessary to keep their stock in health and condition. 



All over this hill country farming seemed to be in 

 a quietly prosperous way, and we gathered that farms 

 were in considerable demand and could only be 

 obtained at an increased rent. Indeed, in that summer 

 of heat and drought it looked specially flourishing ; for 

 although men complained that they were short of 

 pasturage, the grass was everywhere green, and almost 

 in every field there was a little stream still running 

 abundantly. Rents were not high, as indeed might be 

 judged by the roughness of some of the fields and the 

 rank hedges, for men will always be found to keep 

 dear land pretty closely trimmed up. Of course some 

 of the pastures run up to considerable heights, and 

 they are a good deal invaded by fern, which, injurious 

 as it is to the grazing, is still of service as providing 

 the farmer with litter. It is valuable where men fatten 

 bullocks in winter, and yet grow, as in this district, 

 comparatively little corn. The root land looked very 

 promising ; mangolds are not so much grown as turnips, 

 which had made considerable headway, though many 

 of the fields showed that a second sowing had been 

 necessary to establish the plant. 



Poultry were common, especially on the smaller 

 farms ; and we were told that a co-operative egg 

 society had been very successful in collecting the eggs 

 from the farmers, packing them properly, and market- 

 ing them wholesale. Another association existed for 

 the purchase of manures and implements, so that 

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