234 FACTORIES AND FARMING 



Blackburn, about 60 acres in extent, all grass, 

 about half of which was mowed every year. The 

 soil was but poor, derived from drifts overlying the 

 Coal Measures, and the grass, though green, would 

 hardly have satisfied an eye accustomed to the fat 

 pastures of the Midlands. It was well treated, how- ' 

 ever; the hay land received the manure from the 

 cows, and both lime and bones were regularly applied 

 to the pastures, which were also carefully attended 

 to, the dung spread, ant-hills pared, rough places 

 cut over, etc. Of course the grass alone could not 

 carry a cow per two acres all the year, many feeding 

 stuffs had to be bought, and the cows received 5 Ib. 

 of meal a day in the summer and 8 Ib. in winter. 

 Thirty cows were kept in milk ; usually they were 

 bought in as heifers in calf, the calf was reared and 

 sold, and the cow was sold when dry and again in 

 calf. A very good class of milking Shorthorn was 

 kept, for which high prices were paid in Hellifield, 

 Preston and other local markets making a speciality 

 of milch cows. The cows were kept in very big stone 

 " shippons," even the partitions being flagstones set 

 on edge, and the local authority insisted on the 

 considerable air space of 600 cubic feet per cow. 

 No bedding was used in a country which grows on 

 straw, and the manure was cleared out at once. 

 Milking began at five in the mornings and about two 

 in the afternoons ; as soon as the milk had been put 

 through the refrigerator the cart started on its round 

 in Blackburn, where the milk was retailed at is. 

 per gallon. For the working of the farm there was 

 the shrewd old farmer, well over 70 and active, though, 

 as he himself confessed, more of a head than a hand, 

 his two sons and a hired man, none of whom could 

 be idle in order to keep such a business running. 



