64 NATURE AND WOODCRAFT. 



CHAPTER VI. 



ANOTIIER TALE OF ARCAUY — II. 



As yet we have but casually mentioned the 

 actual farm life of the northern yeoman. At the 

 time which this chapter concerns, their land 

 operations consisted in the very oldest methods. 

 The people rarely migrated from one valley to 

 another ; they had few wants ; and of them it 

 might be said that there the richest were poor, 

 and the poor lived in abundance. It is a re- 

 markable testimony to the practical shrewdness 

 of northern farmers, that whilst a century ago 

 their farming was of the worst possible descrip- 

 tion, the depression in agriculture to-day is less 

 felt among them than perhaps in any other 

 portion of the country. 



Theirs was the " old system " of husbandry. 

 When grass land was broken up, it was sown 



