HORSE BREEDING 247 



process itself costs a trifle both for labour and material. 

 When a station is within driving distance and large 

 towns are not more than 100 miles away, it is difficult 

 to see that anything can be more profitable than the 

 sale of the milk itself. 



On this and the neighbouring farms a very good 

 class of Shorthorn cattle was to be found ; doubtless 

 the foundation stock of the country was good, for we 

 were at no great distance from the original Tees-side 

 home of the Shorthorns. Moreover, the landlord 

 kept a celebrated pedigree herd, from which he sold 

 bulls of the best blood, perhaps not quite up to show 

 form, cheaply to his tenants. The same cause, the 

 presence of a celebrated stud of Shire horses on the 

 estate, accounted for the fine class of horses seen on 

 the farms, on most of which a few foals were bred 

 every year at profitable rates. The ordinary farmer 

 finds heavy-horse breeding much more feasible than 

 the raising of light horses, even though in the latter 

 case he may have cheap access to the best stallions, 

 simply because he can use a heavy horse during that 

 critical period from 2^ to 4 years old during which 

 it is being made, whereas one or two light horses of the 

 same age are a considerable nuisance upon a small farm. 



These Cartmel farms possess a certain amount of 

 good grass and also a little arable land, for which 

 reasons some of the horned stock are grown on and 

 fattened ; but, as in the district we had just left, the 

 sale of heifers and young milch cows was perhaps the 

 most profitable part of the cattle-rearing business. 

 Sheep were, of course, important items in the farming, 

 though no particular breed seemed to be dominant 

 in the district. Ewes were bought off the hills 

 Herdwicks and Blackfaces and were crossed with 

 Wensleydale or Border Leicester rams. The mild 



