214 



Farming of Cumberland. 



and Wasdale, where the enormous quantity of 211*62 inches of 

 rain fell in 1848, and 189-49 inches in 1850. What circum- 

 stances combine to cause this unusual quantity at that particular 

 place is not stated by him. He gives the average number of loet 

 days at Whitehaven during the last 18 years as having been 197 

 annually. 



There is a circumstance in the general conformation of the 

 surface of the county which deprives it of a part of the heat of 

 the sun. The whole has a general slope to the west and north- 

 west, and therefore the rays of the sun, taken in the aggregate, 

 do not communicate the same degree of heat as to a district 

 facing the south. 



These circumstances pointedly show the great uncertainty of 

 our climate as a corn-growing one ;* its greater adaptation to the 

 growth of green crops and grass, and the almost impossibility of 

 properly ripening beans and peas. It is very justly said that 

 " a system of cultivation well fitted to one side of the kingdom 

 may be, and is, very precarious on the other. The folding of 

 sheep, and the feeding off of turnips on the land, so extensively 

 carried on in several of the southern counties of England, can 

 never be equally successful on the heavier soils and more humid 

 climate of Cumberland. The heavy cereal crops that would 

 stand to the harvest and yield abundant returns on the eastern 

 side of Northumberland, Durham, or the Lothians, would all be 

 laid and rot on the ground in many parts on the western side of 

 this county. Does not this great humidity of our climate in 

 Cumberland most clearly indicate the advantage of pasture and 

 meadow in comparison with corn ? "f 



The general effect of the " sea blast" on the farming of the 

 county will be treated of in the next article ; but that singular 

 phenomenon, the " Helm wind,'^ deserves notice here. This 

 remarkable wind is peculiar to the mountain Crossfell, and its 

 destructive fury is chiefly expended over the places along the 

 western base of that mountain, and down to the Eden. 



This wind occurs mostly in spring and autumn, and continues 

 for a few days at a time. It is believed by some always to blow 

 from the top of the mountain and down its sides on the adjacent 

 country. Sometimes, when the atmosphere is quite settled, and 

 hardly a cloud to be seen or a breath of wind felt, a small cloud 

 appears on the summit of the mountain, and extends itself to the 

 north and south. The helm is then said to be on^ and in a few 



* In the wet and misty season of 1816 the greater part of the corn was to cut 

 between Michaelmas and Martinmas. In the parish of Dean, the heavy oat-crop 

 of more than 150 acres stood out till the middle of the February following, and it 

 was then useless. This was on undrained clay. 



t Dickinson's Essay. 



