X 



BEYOND the Lime there is still another detached 

 portion of Lancashire, the hilly fringe of land south 

 of the Lakes, extending westward as far as Barrow, a 

 town which has grown into a busy steel-making and 

 ship-building centre, owing to the existence in the 

 neighbouring Mountain Limestone of masses of the 

 purest iron ore found in Great Britain. This Furness 

 district runs right up into the Lakes ; indeed, it is some- 

 what of a surprise to find that Coniston Water and half of 

 Windermere itself lie in Lancashire, another illustration 

 of the difficulty of making the county area the unit 

 for many forms of agricultural administration. 



From Lancaster northwards through Carnforth the 

 underlying rock is limestone, and the soils are partly 

 drift and partly the thin, sticky red soil which generally 

 arises from the limestone. On the lower ground 

 arable farming prevails, and the proximity of the sea 

 results in a fairly early district with a mild climate, 

 as was shown by the recurrence of barley, all of a 

 wide-eared type. But oats form the general cereal, 

 and some very fair crops were seen, good, indeed, 

 considering the unfavourable season for oats. The 

 roots also were good, perhaps not so full of growth as 

 usual, but at that date the northern farmers had 



