AGRICULTURE 



wretched one it makes.' When the land was in pasture the farmers paid little attention to it, 

 weeds were allowed to grow, drain mouths and ditches were trodden in by the cattle, and their 

 droppings left unspread. 



In ploughing there had recently been great improvement, brought about in great measure by 

 the annual ploughing matches of the different agricultural societies, the Scotch ploughs drawn by 

 horses abreast having made good progress. Yet there was a considerable extent of country where 

 the old wooden ploughs were used with three or four horses in single file.*' 



Rothwell was of the opinion that the land of Lancashire ' will not do what it is capable of 

 doing,' without an occasional dressing of lime, with plenty of other manure in addition. 



In 1850 the longhorned cattle had almost disappeared from the county, and the general stock 

 was shorthorns, often crossed with « Holderness or Yorkshire,' and the Ayrshire, a few farmers 

 keeping Kerrys for dairy purposes. 



In the south and west of the county the heavy breed of cart-horses was most used, but in the 

 eastern and more hilly parts of South Lancashire a slightly lighter horse was popular, and in North 

 Lancashire the farmers kept and bred half-bred blood horses for the work of the farm. In the 

 Fylde district high prices were obtained by farmers for hunters, roadsters, and coach-horses. In 

 South Lancashire the favourite sheep was the Cheviot, some Leicesters, black-faced Highland, and 

 Southdowns being kept ; in the northern part of the county the Leicester was most common. The 

 county was famous for pigs, which were mostly a cross between 'the Chinese' and Berkshire, 

 Salford being particularly noted for its breed of pigs, which sometimes attained an enormous size. 



At this date the labouring classes in the manufacturing districts, though not so thrifty as their 

 fathers, had much improved in morals and intelligence. Oatmeal, potatoes, milk, with bacon at 

 dinner, and sometimes beef or mutton formed the principal food of all the industrious and frugal 

 part of the labouring classes in most parts of the county, though in the poorer districts, oatmeal, 

 milk and potatoes were the chief diet. 



Cottage accommodation was deficient both in comfort and decency ; often plenty of room but 

 ill-planned, inconvenient, and too low overhead. Comfort was little studied, windows were small 

 and not able to be opened, doors misplaced and ventilation bad ; frequently there was only one 

 bedroom. In the Fylde many cottages had clay walls and floors, with the bedrooms on the ground 

 floor, more like an Irish cabin than what an English cottage should be. 



The farm buildings were very defective, 



the inconvenient ill-arranged hovels, the rickety wood and thatch barns, and sheds devoid of every known 

 improvement for economizing labour, food, and manure are a reproach to the landlords. One can hardly 

 believe that such a state of matters is permitted in an old and wealthy country " 



It should be borne in mind that this account was written at the close of the protective period. 



L^once de Lavergne, who visited Lancashire in the middle of the nineteenth century, does not 

 paint a very attractive picture. ' Let any one fancy,' [he says,] 



an immense morass shut in between the sea on one side and mountains on the other ; stiff clay land with 

 an impervious subsoil everywhere hostile to farming ; add to this a most gloomy climate, continual rain, 

 a constant cold sea wind, besides a thick smoke, shutting out what little light penetrates the foggy 

 atmosphere, and lastly the ground, the inhabitants, and their dwellings completely covered with a coating 

 of black dust, . . . such, however, is the influence on production of an inexhaustible outlet that these 

 fields so gloomy and forsaken, are rented at an average of 30J., and near Liverpool and Manchester arable 

 land lets as high as £^^ an acre.*' There are not many soils in the most sun-favoured lands which can boast 

 such rents. 



He remarks that Lord Derby had averted a reduction of rents by ' using the great antidote, 

 drainage.' Lavergne does not seem to have inspected the northern part of the county very closely ; 

 and an English writer of the same date says Furness was the redeeming feature in Lancashire 

 farming.^ 



In the soil, the class of farmers, and their general management, this district would not suffer by comparison 

 with other more favourable and accessible parts of England. It is difficult to conceive two districts more 

 distinct in every respect that can interest a farmer than that on the eastern side of the southern, and this 

 on the western part of the northern division of the same county. 



The one was cold and wet growing a bad herbage and rushes, and divided into small holdings, with 

 a manufacturing population who occupied the land without farming it, the other for the most part 

 naturally drained, in the occupation of men who pay in some instances as much as ;^6oo a year rent, 

 producing fine crops of wheat, oats, barley, turnips and seeds. At this time many of the old houses 



" Rothwell, op. cit. 75. " Caird, op. cit. 490. 



" Lavergne, Rural Econ. of Engl, 261-2. '^ Roy. ^grk. Soc. Engl Journ. (1849), 35. 



