Farming of Lancashire. 



5 



greatly exceed in acuteness and intelligence their fellows in the 

 country districts : thus the capital,, skill, and enterprise of the 

 county being attracted to the towns, the rural districts have been 

 comparatively deserted and left to those happy men who, content 

 to live and die as their fathers had done before them, did not 

 aspire to anything beyond, even in their own business of farming. 



The climate of Lancashire is another counteracting cause ; it 

 varies according to the different districts: in the hilly regions to 

 the north and east, it is of course cold and piercing, but in the 

 lower parts, shelving to the south and west, it is generally mild 

 and genial ; but throughout the whole of it the fall of rain is far 

 greater than in the south of England. Mr. White, Secretary to 

 the Liverpool and Manchester Agricultural Society, in his evi- 

 dence last year before the Committee of the House of Commons 

 on Tenant Right, speaking of South Lancashire and the neigh- 

 bourhood of Warrington, says, " We have 36 inches of rain falling 

 in the twelve months;" but in the more hilly parts of the county 

 to the north, my own observations, taken from one of Crosley's 

 patent rain-gauges, w r ould place it higher than that. The 

 average quantity per annum in London, and the counties abutting 

 on Middlesex, is about 20 or 21 inches, whereas in Lancashire I 

 should say it was more than 40 inches, just double ; and though 

 the air is for the most part naturally pure and salubrious, yet this 

 great humidity is a serious obstacle with which the farmer has to 

 contend; and unless his land be thoroughly drained, is an effectual 

 barrier to success either in growing or harvesting his crops. 



The soil again is not naturally good, that is to say, in its 

 undrained state ; it varies of course considerably, and large peat- 

 mosses or bogs, such as Chat-moss in the southern, and Pilling, 

 with others adjoining, in the Middle Division, are found through- 

 out. Of these dreary wastes 1 shall speak more fully in their 

 proper place ; but naturally they are perfectly sterile, and require 

 a large outlay to make them produce anything, except, perhaps, 

 fuel, of which great quantities are consumed by the neighbouring 

 farmers and cottiers. With these exceptions, throughout the 

 whole Southern Division, the soil partakes more or less of a clayey 

 loam, very productive, if well drained, but without this necessary 

 preliminary, cold and difficult to work ; and that it is not in its 

 natural state favourable to vegetation is clearly evidenced by the 

 miserable fences, together with the stunted and weather-beaten 

 trees, which give a starved and bleak appearance, tend rather to 

 show than hide (i the nakedness of the land," and scarcely deserve 

 the name of hedge-row timber. In the Middle and Northern 

 Divisions the soil is more friable, and throughout the Fylde par- 

 takes more of the alluvial and peaty character ; still, without 

 draining, it is comparatively unprofitable. 



