AGRICULTURE 



The rotation of cropping was (i) roots ; (2) wheat or barley ; (3) barley or oats ; (4) seeds, which 

 lay two years and sometimes three ; 1,000 tons of manure were used annually in addition to eight 

 tons of nitrate of soda and one ton of phospho-guano. 



No less than thirty lineal miles of drains had been laid down on the farm during the 

 occupancy of the tenant, the landlord paying half the cost of the materials. 



Another farm of 166 acres, all arable except 26 acres of meadow, near Prescot, mostly heavy 

 soil, was worked by seven horses, and the following is an interesting list of the implements used : 

 two waggons, two large and five small carts, three combined mowers and reapers, reaper, two 

 grubbers, two scarifiers, two double rest, two double furrow, five swing ploughs, three pairs of two- 

 horse harrows, two pairs of clover and seed harrows, two pairs of bow harrows, two drill harrows, 

 two heavy land rollers, also turnip and seed rollers, two horse hay rakes, two hay rowers, winnow- 

 ing machine, weighing machine, turnip cutter, potato crusher and sundry small articles. 



On a farm of 44 acres, eight miles from Liverpool in the parish of Halewood, the rotation 

 was (l) roots ; (2) wheat ; (3) oats ; {4) seeds ; for three or four years, and in 1 877 it was cropped with 

 five acres of wheat, five of oats, one and a half of potatoes, mangolds and turnips, five acres of 

 clover hay, five acres of two-year-old hay, the same of seven-year-old hay, with eight acres of 

 meadow and pasture.'' In this district a very large quantity of hay and straw was sold off the farms 

 to the big towns at a high price, and in return quantities of manure were brought back, probably 

 double the amount that could have been obtained if the hay and straw had been consumed at home, 

 but the circumstances were and are exceptional. 



Rents varied from 45^. to 60s. per acre, the buildings were excellent on most farms, though 

 there was some lack of cottages for labourers, who certainly deserved good houses as they are 

 described as working with energy and good will, following the example of the farmers. In spite of 

 the wages of labour being exceptionally high the wages bill on many farms was quite small, owing 

 to the fact that most of the work was done by the farmer and his family. 



On a dairy and stock farm of 310 acres near Ulverston at the same date the stock included 

 21 large shorthorn cows in milk, 15 two-year-olds, 25 yearlings, and 14 calves; the cows producing 

 2,000 to 3,000 gallons of milk annually at loi. per gallon, in addition to a considerable amount of 

 butter, there were also 15 fat beasts, and 100 to 200 fat sheep were sold every year. 



A large number of farmers had given up making cheese and turned their attention to the 

 sale of milk and the feeding of stock, while the cheese that was made was not so good as formerly, 

 owing to the factories turning out an article inferior to that made by the skilful daughter or 

 wife. 



Lancashire has been the scene of many Royal Agricultural Shows. In 1841 the third show 

 of the Society was held at Liverpool, the two previous ones having been at Oxford and Cambridge. 

 The chief improvement at Liverpool was in the exhibit of implements, which hitherto had not 

 even had special shedding allotted to them, but here they attained the dignity of two whole rows. 

 Cattle were divided into four classes only. Shorthorns, Herefords, Devons, and any other breed or 

 cross ; sheep into three classes only, Leicesters, Southdowns or other short-woolled sheep, and long- 

 wooUed sheep not qualified to compete as Leicesters ; while horses and pigs had to be content with 

 one class each. There were also two prizes for ' extra stock.' *' 



In 1869 the scene of action was Manchester, where the show of shorthorn bulls was 

 perhaps the best hitherto seen, but horse-breeding was suffering from the fact that many of our best 

 brood mares had been exported. 



It was stated that ' as the flail has of late disappeared and been replaced by machinery, so after 

 this exhibition will the scythe and the sickle gradually cease to be used in our fields,' one of the 

 features of the show being the large exhibit and severe trial of reaping and mowing machines. 



In 1877 Liverpool was again visited and the show occupied 75 acres of ground, whereas in 

 1 841 about 10 were sufficient, and at Preston in 1885 a poultry exhibition was added to the other 

 items of the Royal Show for the first time. 



In 1897 Manchester received the show for the second time, and the area required had now 

 grown to 114 acres, the number of entries of live stock having increased from 324 at the first show 

 in Liverpool to 2,688. The most noticeable exhibition was that of horses, amounting to nearly 

 1,000, or nearly three times as many as were shown in 1869. 



The era of agricultural prosperity which commenced just before the Crimean War continued 

 until 1874, when the decline set in, which has continued almost to the present day, though prices 

 held up fairly well until 1885. 



The total area of the county in 1878 was returned as 1,207,926 acres, a decrease of over 



" These items as given in Roy. Jgrk. Soc. Engl. Journ. (New Ser.), xiii, 494, are short of the total of 

 44 acres by 9J acres. Even deducting the area occupied by farm buildings, roads, &c., there is a large 

 discrepancy. 



'' Roy. Jgric. Soc. Engl. Journ. (1841), xcvii. 



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