VIII 

 FACTORIES AND FARMING IN LANCASHIRE 



As we approached Manchester the Cheshire plain grew 

 flatter and duller ; the light also, on what should have 

 been a brilliant August afternoon, was sensibly 

 flattened and dulled, and the trees and hedges were 

 even more dingy and unhappy. But the farming was 

 as intensive as ever, the land was evidently being used 

 to the best of the capacity of these rather indifferent 

 loams, which are not exactly easy to manage, and possess 

 little inherent fertility, lacking as they are in both lime 

 and potash. We were bound for a suburban farm on 

 the very outskirts of Manchester, typical of a system 

 of management dictated by the proximity of a market 

 and entirely independent of the routine of ordinary 

 farming. 



In the first place, no stock were kept except pigs 

 and an odd cow for the use of the house, solitary 

 on the one little grass paddock on the farm. The 

 rest of the land was under the plough, and every- 

 thing produced was sold, hay and straw as well 

 as corn and roots. Rarely have we seen farming 

 reduced to such simplicity ; the rotation consisted of 

 a five-year shift oats, seeds, wheat, seeds, potatoes, 

 the seeds being red clover on one occasion and a 

 mixture including alsike on the next. But there was 

 always some difficulty in getting the clovers to stand 



