A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



fences most irregular. In almost every field there was a marl-pit, but the use of marl was growing 



Ics"; common. • n . . cue 



A common and pernicious custom was that the tenant should deposit all the dung of the farm 

 on the meadow land, so that the arable was much neglected, the meadow-land bemg considered a 

 sort of gold mine which was never to be touched." 



Draining in the Fylde was limited and primitive, dried peat being used as a wedge to form the 

 water-course, but even this efiFected a large increase in the value of the land. After a clean fallow 

 wheat produced from 24 to 28 bushels per acre, beans from 36 to 40. Two-thirds of the whole 

 of the Fylde district were still undrained and unimproved. 



To the east of the railway between Lancaster and Preston the country was chiefly under 

 grass and used for dairying, the farms averaging 80 acres, generally held on seven years' leases. 

 The competition for these small farms, largely fed by men who had made money in the numerous 

 railway schemes of the day, was very keen, and taken advantage of by landowners who often let at 

 high rents to ignorant men with disastrous results to landlord and tenant. 



The following short statement of the prices of land, produce, labour, &c., in 1770 and 1850 

 in South Lancashire is instructive : — 



1770 



Rent, lis. per acre 



Rates, 3a'. in the j^ 



Farm four-sevenths grass 



Three-sevenths arable 



Annual produce of a cow, £^ 



Six horses to a plough do an acre a day 



First man's "ages, £^ a year and board 



Second man, £^ a year and board 



Dairymaid, £j and board 



Bread, oat, I I lb. for I/." 



Cheese, jJ. per lb. 



Butter, SJ. per lb. 



Beef, 2^J. per lb. 



Mutton, z^J. per lb. 



Labourer's cottage rents 201. 



1850 



Rent, 41/. per acre 

 Rates, 3/. <)J. in the £ 

 Four-fifths grass 

 One-fifth arable 



Two or three horses in a plough 



£1^ to £16 3. year and board 



£\o 3. year and board 



£j los. and board 



Bread wheat, c,d. for best 4 lb. loaf 



^d. per lb. 



\id. to IS. per lb. 



5</. to 6<s'. per lb. 



6d. per lb. 



50;. to 100/. 



From these figures it appears that the farmer was not so well off in the latter period, rent and 

 wages had doubled as well as the prices of most of his produce, but butter had only increased one- 

 third, and wheat fetched less in 1850 than in 1770, while the increase in the rates is enormous. 

 It must be remembered, however, that 1850 was an exceptionally bad year for agriculture. The 

 wages of agricultural labourers in the county in the middle of the nineteenth century were high as 

 compared with southern counties. In South Lancashire Englishmen obtained \2s. to 15J. a week, 

 Irishmen 91., the latter being indispensable owing to the scarcity of the former. In the Fylde 

 labourers were only paid 91. and 1 01. a week, and to the north and east of that district 12s. and 

 14;. Fuel was cheap, and they were probably better housed, better fed, better warmed, and better 

 paid than in most parts of England." 



The average rent of cultivated land in Lancashire in 1770 was 22s. bd, per acre, and in 

 England, according to Young, about lOf. In 1850 the average rent of the same in Lancashire 

 was about 421., in England about 27J. "jd. 



In 1770 the average wages paid in England were "js. id. according to Young and "]$. 6d. 

 according to Thorold Rogers, which were about the same as those paid in Lancashire. In 1850 

 the average wages in England were about ioj. 6d. per week, in Lancashire 13;. 6d., a striking 

 proof of the efiFect of the growth of manufactures. Yet Sir Robert Peel, writing shortly before his 

 death, said there were immense tracts in Lancashire as in other counties, with good roads, good 

 markets, and favourable climate, that were pretty nearly in a state of nature, undrained, badly 

 fenced, and wretchedly farmed ; this apathy and neglect having been largely fostered by a reliance 

 on protective duties. Rothwell writing in 1850 considered the farmers of the county more 

 deficient in the management of grass land than in corn or root crops. In many districts land 

 was seldom laid down to grass until it was ' much run ' and full of weeds, under which circum- 

 stances it made poor grass land. And when laid down nothing but red clover and rye grass, or 

 seeds from the hay loft, were sown, and cut twice the first year, then left for pasture, ' and a 



" Rothwell, y^gric. Rep. of Lanes. 59. 



" Oat bread was still the food of some agricultural labourers in 1850. 



" Roy. Jgrk. Soc. Engl. Journ. x, 49. 



430 



