412 THE MIDLANDS 



simply, " in the kitchen," as one of our hosts put it. 

 But they have a character of their own, a robust 

 independence, and the countryside still yields them its 

 simple primitive pleasures. Little extra labour is 

 employed, most of the farms keep one hired man who 

 lives in the house, and in most cases is as independent 

 as his master. These men form a valuable society ; 

 on the other hand, one could not but conclude that 

 their farming is unprogressive and unenlightened ; 

 without changing the system, but with more capital 

 and knowledge, the grassland might be made far more 

 productive, and with a better class of stock, the output 

 of milk could be greatly increased. 



South and west of Ashbourne much the same kind 

 of limestone country prevails on the hills, gradually 

 dropping to rich pastures in the valleys. The 

 elevation is not so great and the soils a little better; 

 the farms still run small, 50 to 80 acres, and they 

 have rather more land under the plough, two fields 

 instead of one, with a breadth of roots as well as of 

 oats. All the farmers depend on milk production ; 

 but though they grow a little winter food from the 

 arable land and buy grains from Burton to eke out the 

 grass, they confine themselves as much as possible to 

 summer dairying and consider that the production of 

 milk in the winter does not pay, in spite of its higher 

 price. Rents run from 2os. to 305. an acre, hired 

 labour is scarce and dear, and in consequence some of 

 the larger farms and there are a few that run to two 

 or three hundred acres are inadequately worked. It 

 was, in fact, in this district that we began to hear, as 

 we did not infrequently through the Midlands, of 

 good-sized farms worked prairie fashion by a farmer 

 either single-handed or with the one man customary on 

 the small farms, everything neglected, land and fences 



