256 



Farming of Cumberland. 



guides, and if brought into general use on farms would unfold 

 truths which many do not think of. 



Feeding cattle for the shambles has been practised in Cumber- 

 land in the summer season for a long time, yet so rare an occur- 

 rence was it to find beef exhibited in the market during spring 

 and summer, towards the end of the last century, that the butchers 

 of Whitehaven even then thought it necessary to advertise* in 

 the newspapers before they slaughtered a beast. It was seldom 

 that heifers t or oxen were fed at that period ; they were mostly 

 sold to go out of the county to feed, and only cows were fed here. 

 When winter feeding was resorted to, it was often with a view to 

 get rid of some old or exhausted cow, which had been kept as 

 long as useful or safe. 



The usual keep for the feeding cow of that date was a cart- 

 load or two of the best hay stored by itself, and the tops of the 

 nicest corn-sheaves, if the teeth were good, but if not, the corn 

 was crushed at the mill, or in the creeing- trough J at home. So 

 late as that time it was usual for a butcher or a grazier to 

 slaughter a number of cows§ at Martinmas, and supply customers 

 with a quarter or (rarely) a side of beef, part of which was con- 

 signed to the chimney to dry, for summer use, and the rest to 

 the brine-tub, as a winter store. This, with a side of bacon, a 

 few dried mutton legs, and as many salmon as could be caught, 

 formed a year's store of meat for the farm-house. More than one 

 or two cows being fed on a farm in a winter season was then a 

 rare occurrence ; but after turnips were grown more plentifully, 

 and their uses approved, winter feeding became more general. 

 Mr. Mossop, of Rottington Hall, the late Mr. Fox, of St. Bees 

 Abbey, and, after them, Mr. Benn, of Monkwray, were the first 

 to winter feed any great numbers in the western division. Mr. 

 Wright, of Oakbank, near Longtown, was the first in that neigh- 

 bourhood, about the year 1823. Since then the practice has 

 increased as the culture of turnips has extended, and many arable 

 farms now feed annually their twenty or thirty, or more head of 

 cattle, which are mostly sent off as they become ready, by steam- 

 ship or rail, to the great markets of Liverpool, Newcastle, &c. 



It is always the object of the Cumberland grazier and winter- 

 feeder to make his cattle pay for the food they consume. He 

 reckons it an unprofitable season if any part of his profit requires 

 to be charged on the dung-heap ; and on an average of years his 



* The columns of "Ware's Advertiser" furnish several instances of this kind. 



f There was thought to be something wrong, verging on the criminal, to feed 

 heifers in some parts of the county before they had been tried at milking. 



\ This was a stone trough, with a round bottom, like the druggist's mortar ; and 

 the corn was crushed by hand, with a stone or a hard wooden pestle like the 

 pavior's beater. 



§ In Bewcastle the winter beeve was called the " mairt." 



