Fanning of Lancashire 



19 



they give it all the attention they are capable of. They mow 

 with large scythes, 5 feet or 5 feet 6 inches long-, very heavy, and 

 therefore slow in action, and they shake out the swathe, not with 

 forks or any implement, but with the hands. The climate being 

 precarious and the population small, the hay-making on a mode- 

 rately-sized farm takes a month or six weeks, part of July and 

 August, and as it is made it is secured in close barns, not in stacks 

 or open sheds: 2 tons to the acre is a good crop. The produce 

 of the cows is made into cheese and butter, mostly the former, 

 and the whey given to the young calves. They have no green- 

 crops nor farmyards for turning the cattle into and preserving the 

 manure during the winter. Simple and hardy in their habits, 

 they have few wants beyond the actual necessaries of life ; their 

 houses are built of the rough gritstone of the country, and the 

 turf on the moors adjoining serves the purpose of fuel. Wheaten 

 bread is a rarity ; and the bakestone, or hot hearth, for baking 

 the large oatcakes upon, forms a necessary appendage to the farm- 

 house and the cottage • in fact this is the case throughout the 

 whole of North Lancashire. The oatcake is still the favourite 

 food both of farmers and labourers. 



Draining, wherever it has been attempted, has been done some- 

 times with sods, but more commonly with stones, the natural 

 materials of the country : the drain is made in the form of a sough, 

 with rough stones, at a depth in some cases of 28 inches, but for 

 the most part not more than 18 or 20 inches, and carried across 

 the fall at intervals of 9 or 12 yards, with just sufficient inclination 

 to allow the water to flow, the object being to prevent thereby 

 any scour of the subsoil. Some fill the drains half with the soil 

 taken out and half with broken stones, and carry the latter up to 

 the surface on the higher side of the drain, so that the surface- 

 water may run into the drains as into a, spout at the eaves of a 

 house — a most effectual means, by the way, of carrying off all the 

 small particles of manure, whether lime or anything else that 

 may be lying there. This mode of draining costs \bd. per rood 

 of 7 yards, but is gradually giving way to a better system; and 

 the introduction of pipe-tiles enables the drains to be carried in 

 safety down the fall at a greater depth and at less expense. 



On descending the hills the style of farming begins to improve, 

 and both the soil and climate admit of more attention being paid 

 to arable culture, and with greater success than in the high lands. 

 Still, with the exception of a few large landed proprietors, such as 

 Mr. Brockholes, of Claughton Hall, and Mr. Jacson, of Barton, 

 there is little improvement on the old system, and the dislike to 

 alteration prevails here as elsewhere. 



The fields in many parts for whole districts bear the appearance 

 of having been ploughed till thev could produce nothing, and the 



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