Farming of Lancashire. 



35 



that I had not one-third of a crop on that portion, the fly destroying them ; 

 and what remained, for the want of a stimulant and ready concocted food — 

 liquid manure — made very poor progress, the season being late. 



" Manure. — Since 1843-4, my first two years, I have bought no heavy 

 manure, and very little guano — about a ton to 25 cwt. per ann. I "find it 

 the most advantageous to make the manure on the premises, by buying 

 linseed and straw for bedding, and laying on as many cattle in the winter 

 as I can accommodate for feeding. I have never bought a single ton of 

 horse or cow manure — only night-soil from the factories, which nobody 

 thought much about, when I first commenced. 



" Cattle. — The greatest number of cattle kept by the last tenant were in 

 summer never more than five milch cows, and about four or six head of 

 young stock, a pig, and two horses. In 1846 1 milked fifteen cows, besides 

 having young stock ; three horses, and three brood-sows and store-pigs. 

 Last summer I milked twelve cows, having rather more under the plough ; 

 and this winter I have nine milch cows, two two-year-olds, and five fat 

 beasts in my shippon, five yearling calves, one back-end calf, two nine- 

 months-old bulls, three horses, two brood-sows, and eight store-pigs. I 

 have grown Italian rye-grass, and mown three crops ; and now that the 

 land is in better condition for it, I shall sow it again. I grew a very heavy 

 crop of tick-beans in 1847, broadcast, and well mucked with farm-yard 

 manure. The extent of land was a customary acre, or 1a. 2r. 20p. statute, 

 and I had sixteen loads of 280 lbs, to the load and 147 lbs. 



(Signed) " Rich. Hinde." 



Northern Division — No. 3. 



To the north of the river Lune the county becomes rapidly 

 contracted in its limits, being confined on the one hand by West- 

 moreland, on the other by the sea ; over the sands to the north- 

 west there is the rich district of Furness and a hilly tract of some 

 extent, which naturally seems to belong rather to Cumberland 

 and Westmoreland than to this county. Throughout the whole 

 of this northern division the transition limestone, slate, and grey- 

 wacke strata prevail ; and the difference in the improved appear- 

 ance of the surface is very perceptible, whilst the cultivation is 

 decidedly superior to many other parts of the county. Furness 

 seems to be the redeeming feature in Lancashire farming. In the 

 soil, the class of farmers, and their general management, this dis- 

 trict would not suffer by comparison with other more favourable 

 and accessible parts of England. It is difficult to conceive two 

 districts more distinct in every respect that can interest a farmer 

 than that on the eastern side of the southern, and this on the 

 western part of the northern division of the same county. The 

 one cold and wet, growing a bad herbage and rushes, and divided 

 into small holdings, with a manufacturing population, who, occu- 

 pying the land, cannot be said to farm it; the other for the most 

 part naturally drained by a substratum of gravel and limestone, in 

 the occupation of men who pay, in some instances, as much as 

 600Z. a year rent, producing beautiful crops of wheat, oats or 

 barlev, turnips, and seeds. Soil of everv variety, from a stiong 



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