262 



Farming of Cumberland. 



But, independently of their individual interests, for whicli 

 themselves must care, it would seem that dealers in cattle are as 

 useful in the economy of agriculture as merchants in the com- 

 mercial world, acting a similar part in collecting from abundance 

 and dispersing amongst scarcity. A great proportion of the 

 cattle and sheep in the county passes through one or more hands 

 between the breeder and feeder, and between the breeder and 

 consumer one or two more. Many farmers would be at a loss in 

 purchasing their supplies of cattle, and disposing of their surplus 

 stock, without the aid of the jobbers ; and some, not having confi- 

 dence in their marketing qualifications, rely solely on them in 

 the transfer of their live stock : thus saving much time which 

 would be spent in markets and fairs, and, where mutual confidence 

 exists, money also. Some combine the business of farming with 

 that of dealing ; and most of the North Cumberland farmers, 

 from their adjacency to the great driving- roads, have a smattering 

 of trade in either cattle, sheep, or horses. 



Of late years, the sands at Carlisle having been more largely 

 supplied with sheep on the days of the cattle-shows, it has been 

 found desirable to remove that part of the show, to make more 

 accommodation for cattle, which are also on the increase. By 

 the judicious arrangements of Mr. Rome, whilst Mayor of Carlisle 

 in 1850, an adjoining field belonging to the Corporation has been 

 set apart for the show of sheep, and is found to be a great con- 

 venience, from its proximity to the cattle-show, without the one 

 interrupting or interfering with the other. 



Weekly shows of cattle and sheep are held on the market-days 

 at several of the market-towns, and fairs at sundry places. 



Sheep. — The sheep-farming of the county, and the breeds of 

 sheep, are of the most variable description. What the original 

 breed was, or what the breed of a few hundred years back, there 

 is no certainty. One hundred years ago the sheep were nearly 

 all of the grey-faced or black-faced moor and mountain breed. At 

 that period, when nearly half the low-lying district and the whole 

 of the hills and mountains were open common, almost every 

 farm had a frontage to some common or other, or access to one 

 by an " out-gang," or narrow strip of open land leading from the 

 village to the common. The enclosure of all the low commons, 

 and of portions of the higher, and the consequent cultivation of 

 all the available parts, caused the sheep to be sold off in thou- 

 sands, till, about the year 1820, few except those on the moun- 

 tains remained. Since that period, drainage and turnip culture 

 have been widely extended, and the system of feeding sheep on 

 turnips has been approved and practised to such an extent as to 

 cause the numbers of sheep now kept to be little short of what 



* Culley says the dunfaced. This breed is now extinct. 



