A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



and cotticjcs built of clat and clay still existed, but the type was rapidly disappearing. In the hilly 

 districts, as now, dry stonewalls were the most common fences, while in the lower parts quick, or 

 what was supposed to be quick, hedges were most common but they were generally much neglected 

 and required thorough renovation, the greater part straggling over four or five yards of ground with a 

 ditch on both sides. Between 1835 and 1850 numerous agricultural societies were established, 

 almost every town having one, especially in the north ; but the smaller ones soon tended to amalgamate 

 with the larger. 



It was a great era of drainage, Peel in 1848 introduced government drainage loans, and many 

 tileries sprang up in various parts of the county. The use of guano, bones, and superphosphate was 

 becoming common, and nitrate of soda was being introduced. Threshing machines, worked by horses, 

 which, as we have seen, were at first very unpopular, were being extensively used, ' thirty or forty 

 being set up ' in the neighbourhood of Manchester, ' brought from Scotland,' and costing ^t^o apiece. 

 Other new implements were Finlayson's cultivator, a turnip drill for sowing two drills at once, the 

 Norwegian harrow, Croskil's clod crusher, Ducies' drag. 



After many years of expectation and disappointment agriculturists were at last in 1867 fur- 

 nished with returns sufficiently reliable for many practical purposes, but appearing somewhat scanty in 

 1907. To those who know them it is not surprising to find that the farmers themselves were often 

 the chief obstacle to the compilation of the returns. 



Those for Lancashire are as under : — 



Total Area Acreage not Total Area Arable Pasture 



accounted for cultivated 



1866.... — 5'o,394 708,827 234,374 474.453 

 1867. . . . 1,219,221 489.3^9 729,892 230,490 499,402 



Live Stock 



Total Cattle Sheep Pigs 



1866 .... 470,542 202,552 217,615 50,375 



1867 .... 588,549 201,363 337,495 49,691 



There are several criticisms, however, to be made on these returns. From ' pasture ' all heath 

 and mountain land is excluded, a very large omission in Lancashire. 



Under ' arable ' are included all corn and green crops, clover, artificial grasses, and bare fallow. 

 The live stock census in 1866 was taken on 5 March, in 1867 on 25 June. In 1866 all occupiers 

 of under five acres of land were excluded. 



In 1877 one of the last of the 'good years,' labourers in the Liverpool and Manchester districts 

 were getting on an average 2n. a week, for which they worked hard and honestly, the worst farming 

 being observed where the wages were lowest." In the same district the horses used were mostly shire, 

 and the cattle shorthorn ; the fences were trim and neat, and gates all substantial and well hung! 

 There was also complete confidence between landlord and tenant, so that yearly agreements were 

 the rule, under which tenants had occupied farms for generations and confidently carried out 

 improvements. 



On one of the best farms in the county, near Aintree, with a soil described as ' black soil on 

 sand and peaty loam,' most of the subsoil being sandy, the following was the cropping in 1877 '■ 



Acrci 

 Barley, Chevalier ......... . , 



Oats, Yellow Poland ■........,,[ ^6 



Wheat, Hunter White '. ! ' 38 



Tnmips ........... 



Potatoes .... ' * '. 



Hay •■";;;;:: 62 



Pasture ..... 

 Irrigated Meadow 



242 

 The crop of oats was estimated at 80 bushels to the acre. The stock on the farm consisted of : 

 8 working horses , boar, very well bred 



2 two-year old hones ^ „ill,i„g ^^^^ 



2 yearhng horses ^ two-year old heifers 

 ' '°^ . 8 yearling heifers 



15 store pigs 3 calves 



3 breeding sows , shorthorn bull 



The amount expended on labour was from ;r8oo to ;^ 1,000 a year. 



" Roy. Jgri(. Soc. Engl. Joum. (1877), 465. 

 432 



