24 



Farming of Lancashire. 



The last year he has used the pipe tiles with collars, If inch 

 wide ; but up to that time the horseshoe-tiles, with turf for a 

 covering, or even turf alone, which forms an excellent drain when 

 the subsoil is sound and stiff. Mr. Clifton supplies the materials 

 and the tenant does the rest of the work, or Mr. Clifton does the 

 whole, and charges a per centage. Hitherto Mr. Begbie has not 

 been able, from the unformed state of his farm, to carry out any 

 regular course of cropping, but now he proposes to adopt the 

 seven- course shift, viz. : — 



1st year, one-seventh of turnips. 



2nd „ „ wheat or barley. 



3rd „ grass and pasture. 



4th „ „ pasture. 



5th „ „ oats. 



6th „ „ beans, drilled. 



7th „ „ wheat. 



The climate of the Fylde he finds to be wet and uncertain in 

 autumn and winter, but good in spring and summer. He has a 

 steam engine of 6-horse power for threshing and bruising corn, 

 which can also be adapted to crush linseed without any additional 

 power, at the same time with the threshing. Thick sowing for 

 wheat is not so much in use here as elsewhere ; 5 pecks in the 

 autumn, until the middle or end of October, and 6 or 6J- as the 

 season advances, are commonly sown, and many persons at the 

 beginning of autumn sow under a bushel per statute acre. 



Two tileries have been established on this property : one, the 

 largest, has been at work for some years past ; and a second 

 smaller one was erected last year. 



From Lytham we must go to Rawcliffe, and examine the 

 mosses to the north of the Wyre : a dreary country it is in its 

 natural state, but the hand of man and the blessing of Providence 

 upon his exertions are fast converting this wilderness into a gar- 

 den ; oats and potatoes, turnips, and even wheat, may be seen 

 growing in the greatest luxuriance on the surface of a bog, per- 

 haps thirty feet deep or more, for in some parts the moss is found 

 to exceed even this, and the black peat- stacks of turf reared to 

 dry for fuel may be seen standing in gloomy contrast with the 

 smiling produce of the sickle. 



To enter fully into the details of the method by which this 

 extraordinary revolution has been effected would of itself require 

 an Essay ; but the limits of this Report will not admit of more than 

 a full statement of the facts : nor is there space to enter upon the 

 very interesting question of the formation and origin of the moss — ■ 

 that belongs more to the geological inquirer — our business is with 

 the surface ; but it is worthy of a passing remark, that large 

 remains of oak trees, sound, and black as ebony, and of a size 



