6 



Farming of Lancashire. 



In the mining districts the ground is in many parts completely 

 honeycombed and burrowed like a rabbit-warren : the superin- 

 cumbent weight of earth over these excavations will often sink, 

 and the levels of the surface becoming quite changed, any drains 

 that may have been laid there are at once destroyed, and the 

 owner's trouble and capital altogether lost ; this is very dis- 

 couraging to a farmer, and an evil unknown in a purely agricul- 

 tural district. 



To these drawbacks, natural and artificial, may be added the 

 consequence resulting from them, which is this: — That the men 

 who have grown rich in those great marts of industry and com- 

 merce, Liverpool and Manchester, and other manufacturing 

 towns of the county, when they seek a permanent investment for 

 their property in land, frequently leave the county in which they 

 have made all their money, and, unwilling in the autumn of their 

 years to engage in new and untried undertakings, are led to seek 

 in more southern counties a more genial climate, a more fertile 

 soil, a higher class of farmers and farming, and a more tempting 

 investment than Lancashire can offer. 1 do not deny that there 

 are some commendable exceptions to this rule, but for the most 

 part it is unhappily true, as our rushes and bogs abundantly 

 testify. 



I have thus attempted shortly to describe and account for the 

 general aspect of the county, as it would appear to the eyes of a 

 passing stranger, but though as a whole I believe the above 

 description to be a true one, yet if we examine a little more 

 closely, we shall find many cheering instances of progressive 

 improvement, both in the case of large landed proprietors and the 

 more humble occupiers of the lands of their fathers, which give 

 good grounds to hope that there is a spirit at work which will 

 soon change the face of the country and enable us to take our 

 proper place amongst the farmers of England. The Earl of 

 Derby, at Knowsley, Mr. Clifton, at Lytham, the late Mr. Ffar- 

 ington, of Worden, whose untimely and premature end has left a 

 blank at Leyland which can never in this generation be filled up, 

 Mr. Wilson Ffrance, in the Fylde, and the Duke of Hamilton, at 

 Ashton, and others, have each in their several districts set a good 

 example of what may be done by perseverance and skill, com- 

 bined with a liberal and judicious outlay of capital: they have 

 now left us without excuse : let each man, then, in his own sphere, 

 and according to his means and ability, be ''up and doing" in 

 the great and good work of improving the land, by employing the 

 people, and we shall then soon cease to be famous as the worst 

 farmed county between London and Edinburgh. 



The geographical situation of Lancashire is between 53° 20' 

 and 54° 25' north latitude, and between 2° 0' and 3° 17' west 



