352 CORNISH MARKET GARDENING 



equivalent of i a week. One farmer who showed us 

 round argued strongly against the custom of a standing 

 wage for all men alike, and insisted on the necessity 

 of paying higher rates to the better men, if only to 

 encourage them to improve their work. He told us 

 that there were a fair number of small holdings in the 

 district, on which a labourer who had saved money 

 might make a start and earn a reasonable living by 

 dairying, raising chickens, etc., the summer visitors 

 providing a very good market for small holders' produce. 

 For all that, very few boys were taking to farming ; he 

 had not a single one on his farm ; most of them went 

 into the Navy or drifted into some form of seafaring. 



Though the small men grew milk, the normal industry 

 was mixed farming, in which the chief revenue was 

 derived from stock rearing. A usual rotation was 

 wheat, barley, roots, barley, and seeds, which were 

 allowed to stand from three to five years ; but every 

 farm had also a fair proportion of permanent grass, 

 though little of it was up to fatting quality. Dredge 

 corn was common in place of barley, which was the 

 only corn to be sold, and even of that the greater part, 

 with the wheat and oats, was consumed on the farm. 

 As in other western counties, we found wheat held in 

 high esteem for feeding purposes when mixed with 

 other grain. 



Throughout the district we found a local Cornish 

 barley being grown ; in many cases the seed had not 

 been changed on a particular farm for a couple of 

 generations, and such occasional introductions as had 

 been made had only served to add another variety to 

 the already mixed stock of seed. As far as a Cornish 

 type can be distinguished it is stiff-strawed, narrow- 

 eared barley yielding thin and coarse-skinned grain ; 

 but it represents an aggregate of varieties that has 



