AGRICULTURE 



ONE-half of Lancashire cannot be considered as possessing any great natural capabilities 

 as an agricultural county, and probably no county in England shows a greater diversity 

 of soils, climate and cultivation. 

 It may be conveniently divided into the northern and southern districts, the 

 latter comprising all the country south of Preston and the Ribble, the former the rest 

 of the county to the north of the river. 



The southern includes nearly two-thirds of the county, and contains the great manufacturing 

 towns. On the east a range of hills divides it from Yorkshire, composed of Millstone Grit, on which 

 the soil is generally thin and poor. The southern and western sides extending along the Mersey, 

 and thence by Ormskirk to Preston, rest on the New Red Sandstone, while the Coal Measures occupy 

 the whole central space. The aspect of this part of the county is not picturesque. On the west 

 next the sea, are great flats of sand over which the gales from the Irish Channel sweep unchecked. 

 The difference between the southern division and the northern in its geology, the nature of its soil 

 and the character and habits of its people is most striking, and exercises a very important influence 

 on the farming of the whole county. 



Speaking generally, two-thirds of the soil of South Lancashire is a strong clayey loam, upon a 

 subsoil of clay, the clay requiring underdraining before it can be properly cultivated. 



North of the Ribble the county differs in many respects from that to the south, being an 

 agricultural instead of a manufacturing district, and the ruddy looks and strong limbs of the inhabi- 

 tants show that they are not sharing in the physical decadence caused by modern industrial conditions. 

 With the exception of the Fylde the county narrows into a strip a few miles in breadth reaching from 

 the sea to the mountainous district that divides it from Yorkshire. 



The soil on the eastern parts and mountainous slopes is thin and of a black moorish nature, 

 at the foot of the hills of a stronger quality, in many parts amounting to a stiff clayey loam. In the 

 Fylde almost every kind of soil is found, from stiff clay to sand or bog. 



Further to the north, separated from the rest of the county by Morecambe Bay, lies the rich 

 district of Furness. Red Sandstone, Millstone Grit, Mountain Limestone, and clay slate, form the 

 chief geological features of the district. Near the coast the land shows alternate husbandry, as it 

 begins to rise towards the hills it is principally in grass ; the hills are, of course, stocked with sheep. 



Valuable information concerning Lancashire agriculture at the end of the thirteenth and 

 beginning of the fourteenth centuries is contained in the accounts for the years 1295-6 and 1304-5 

 of the stewards, farm bailiflfe and cowherds of the towns or granges in the honour of Clitheroe and 

 barony of Halton,^ belonging to Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln. The vaccaries or breeding farms 

 established in the chases formed a chief source of the earl's revenue, producing ^^3 a year each, the 

 average price of an ox being then about gs., of a cow or heifer, Js., oxen being then and for cen- 

 turies after the most valuable, as they were used for draught purposes. The cattle suffered from 

 the ravages of wolves. Cart-horses were worth from £2 to ^^3, one being bought at Cocker- 

 mouth in 1282 for £2 13J. 4^. by Merton College, Oxford. 



According to these records the cost of haymaking 3 acres of meadow was 2s. ^\d. ; 4 qrs. 

 of oats were sold for gj. ; mowing 60 J acres I'js. j^d. ; reaping, gathering and binding 16 acres of 

 oats 6s. lo^d. ; seventeen ash trees fetched los. ; 80 wild boars £^ 6s. id.^ 



The food and wages of ' one harrowing for thirteen weeks ' amounted to 5;. ^d. ; threshing 

 and winnowing 41 J qrs. of oats cost 3J. \d. The wages of a labourer were i^d. a day, of a mason 

 T,d., of a carpenter, 4<^. 



The rent of John de Blakeburn 'for 28|- acres in Berdeswurthgrave ' was \/\.s. ^d. ; 40 acres 

 at Penwortham were let for £1 ; the loss of the rent of 6 acres of land at Burnley was estimated at 

 2s., and of 4 acres at Little Marsden at is. ^d. Where there were forests or chases, as in Wyresdale, 



' Two ' Compoti ' of the Lane, and Ches. manors of H. de Lacy, earl of Lincoln, translated by the 

 Rev. P. A. Lyons (Chet. Soc). 



' These sums have to be multiplied by at least twenty to represent the present value of money. 



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