18 



Farming of Lancashire. 



This other section is made on a line drawn east and west : — 



BLEASDALE MOORS. 



Fig. 



The only limestone fit for agricultural purposes found through- 

 out the whole of this division is in the neighbourhood of Chipping, 

 a village seven or eight miles north-east of Preston, in the valley 

 which separates Longridge Fell from Bleasdale Moors; it is ex- 

 tensively used in these parts as a top-dressing to the grass-lands 

 and sheep-pastures, and with good effect. The cost at the kiln 

 is \\d a vvindle, and two windles are equal to 3 cwt. 



The inhabitants of the bills are a manly and independent, but 

 rather uncultivated, race ; shrewd enough as far as their own 

 immediate interest is concerned, but incapable of looking forward ; 

 unwilling to lay out sixpence this year in the chance of receiving 

 a shilling next, and jealous to an extreme of any alteration or 

 innovation on the customs of their fathers. Many families have 

 lived on the same farms for generations ; and by frequent inter- 

 marriages they have become connected together almost like one 

 family, and, with a strong attachment to their native hills, care 

 little to receive or visit strangers. 



Their farms are not large ; some of the most important amount 

 to '250 or 300 statute acres of enclosed land, with a large right of 

 sheep-pasture over the moors adjoining, and held for the most part 

 on yearly tenancies. The stock on the farm is generally all the 

 capital they possess, which consists of a herd of milch-cows and 

 their calves of different ages, little or no care being given as to the 

 breeding of them; a flock of black-faced sheep of very inferior 

 quality, and a pig or two, with perhaps a couple of horses when 

 the farm is large, make up the total of their property : they 

 generally keep their land in grass, with a plentiful crop of rushes, 

 w r hich serve, as they say, " to keep it warm ;" or if they plough it 

 up and take a crop of oats, which is the most they ever aspire to, 

 they leave it to time and nature to grass it over again, and never 

 think of putting any manure on; this is all preserved for the 

 meadows, which are really of importance, inasmuch as they pro- 

 duce the hay which is to keep the stock through the winter. The 

 hay-harvest is therefore the most critical time of the year, and 



