248 FURNESS AND THE LAKE DISTRICT 



climate made it possible to let the lambs come rather 

 early in March, and the lambs and ewes together were 

 fattened off on the grass. The value of these mountain 

 breeds for crossing purposes seems to lie in the fact 

 that when brought on to the low land the ewes make 

 very good mothers with an abundant supply of milk, 

 so that the lambs thrive exceedingly well up to the 

 time they are weaned. Then they ought to be sold, 

 because as soon as they are taken from their mothers 

 they prove much less profitable animals and fatten 

 more slowly than the lowland breeds proper. 



We then went down to see another farm on re- 

 claimed land at sea-level ; it was protected from the 

 tides by a sea wall and had been under cultivation 

 half a century or more. The soil was the usual fine 

 alluvial stoneless material found in such situations, 

 easy to work but reasonably retentive, and not to be 

 played with in any weather. The fields were large, 

 laid out in comfortable rectangles and cropped on the 

 rotation we have described above, where five or six 

 years of temporary ley are followed by three years 

 under the plough oats, turnips and mangolds, oats 

 and wheat. The cereal crops, especially the oats, were 

 a long way above the average, though very weedy, 

 and the temporary pastures were really magnificent, 

 covered with a splendid springy sward full of white 

 clover, such as might have been grassland from time 

 immemorial. The tenant, indeed, was accustomed to 

 take prizes for the best-laid-down pastures of various 

 ages. One five years old especially took our eye, 

 because permanent seeds, even when they start away 

 well for a year or two, so often become very poor from 

 the fourth to the seventh year, when the effects of the 

 cultivation have worn off and yet the land has had no 

 time to accumulate a stock of humus. 



