46 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF BLACKPOOL AND DISTRICT 



By the middle of the nineteenth century the principles of the New Husbandry 

 had become established in the district. The unending succession of corn crops 

 had been replaced by a five or a six-course rotation which adapted the Norfolk 

 four-course to the local economic and climatic conditions — oats, turnips or 

 potatoes, wheat or barley, clover and rye-grass left down for two or three years. 

 It had by this time become unusual to take two corn crops in succession, but 

 where the practice survived the land was dunged heavily. The increasing 

 head of stock kept increased the quantity of farmyard manure and leases often 

 required its application to the arable every third year. Marling was ceasing 

 to be general, the use of bone manure was becoming more common, and 

 sulphate of ammonia from town gas works was just beginning to be used. 



The relative proportions of arable and grass had already begun to change. 

 Every farm by the middle of the nineteenth century had a considerable acreage 

 in grass mainly on the strong land. Dairying, previously an important 

 subsidiary objective, was becoming the rival of corn, and the Shorthorn was 

 replacing the Longhorn because of its better milking qualities. The increasing 

 head of stock which needed tying-up room in winter demanded the re- 

 modelling of farm buildings. House and barn formerly combined under one 

 roof were now separate, and shippons were constructed round the yard. Many 

 of the new courtyard farms came into being just after 1 850. While the strong 

 land was being increasingly laid down to grass, the reclaimed moss went into 

 arable as soon as it came into cultivation, and helped to maintain the acreage 

 under the plough. The mosses within the Fylde proper had wholly passed 

 under cultivation by this time and those of the Over-Wyre district were in 

 active reclamation, though their improvement was not completed until quite 

 recently. By 1850 the present day economy was fast developing. 



The accompanying table, which refers to the 25 civil parishes of the Fylde 

 proper, enables us to gauge the rate of change statistically for the later part of 

 the century. By 1870 (the first statistical returns were made in 1867) half 

 of the cultivated land, excluding rough grazings, was under grass. This was a 

 greater proportion of grass than in England and Wales as a whole but, relative 

 to the rest of Lancashire, the Fylde was still an important arable district. 

 Of the land under the plough, about half was in corn, a quarter in rotation 

 grass, and another quarter in roots and bare fallow. These proportions indicate 

 a four-course rather than a five or a six-course system. The two or three 

 years' grass ley, though practised on some farms, was not universal. Of the 

 corn crops, wheat had a slightly larger acreage than oats. Even in this district, 

 with an average rainfall of considerably over 30 inches per year, wheat was still 

 profitable to grow, for wheat prices did not begin to fall catastrophically until 

 the next decade. The land was too heavy for barley, but there was a con- 

 siderable acreage under beans. On the strong land there was a good deal of 

 bare fallow, which was not necessarily bad husbandry on these wheat and bean 

 soils. Of the roots, potatoes occupied a much greater acreage than turnips, 

 swedes and mangolds. The turnip crop has never been very important in the 

 district. The strong loams are wheat and bean land rather than turnip and 

 barley land, and the moss soils yield such huge crops of potatoes that potatoes 

 form their most obvious root break. Moreover, turnips were not required 

 by the stock economy as much as in eastern England with its sheep folded on 

 roots and bullocks fattening in the yard. 



