210 



Farming of Ciimherlajid. 



and a smaller one still at Naworth, and these are in their regular 

 places. 



The remainder of the county is composed of the older series of 

 rocks, the metamorphic, the slaty, and the granitic. In the 

 spongy peat soils which cover the tops, the more level parts of 

 the sides, and most of the upper valleys of the mountains of all 

 these various formations, a great quantity of water is suspended, 

 and there the herbage is mostly coarse. 



Around the bases of the mountains, of whatever formation, are 

 found soils of a most fertile description, calculated as to quality 

 (but not often as to climate) for producing every usual kind of 

 crop, and especially grass. 



II. Peculiarities of Climate as they affect Crops. 



The effects of climate on the agriculture of a country, and its 

 influence on the operations of husbandry, are so important, that 

 it was the wish of the writer to ha^'^e entered more fully into 

 meteorology ; but the materials at command were found, upon in- 

 vestigation, so inadequate to the objects he had contemplated as to 

 preclude the possibility of doing so with satisfaction. 



Not only are few journals of the weather regularly kept by 

 private persons for any considerable number of years consecu- 

 tively, but those which have been so kept are difficult to combine 

 on account of their distance from each other and their difference 

 of position, being the results of observations made at different 

 altitudes, as well as subject to other variations from sundry causes 

 which more directly affect a mountainous country, especially one 

 bordering on the ocean. A very accurate journal of the weather 

 was formerly kept for several years at Carlisle by the late Mr. 

 Pitt, and afterwards one not less so by the late Rev. Mr. Mat- 

 thews at Wigton. 



But the distances of these places from each other would alto- 

 gether prevent the connecting of these observations correlatively 

 together, so as to deduce from them any accurate results ; the 

 average temperature of Carlisle being apparently in excess of 

 the temperature of Wigton by 2°, and the quantity of rain 

 varying also considerably at the two places, though the elevations 

 above the sea are nearly the same. 



The late Mr. Atkinson, of Harraby, kept also, for some years, a 

 very accurate journal, which, being in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of Carlisle, might be considered to be nearer in accordance 

 with Mr. Pitt's. But it appears that, even in this short distance, 

 a variation in the average fall of rain has been noticed to the 

 extent of IJ and 2 inches annually, and probably a still greater 

 difference in the temperature. 



The observations made by Mr. Pitt extended over 24 years, 



