284 



Farming of Cumherland, 



lime, and to leave the solution tolerably clear. The planks, &c., 

 may remain in steep for two or three weeks (a little hot lime 

 being now and then thrown in), and should then be taken out and 

 set up to dry awhile, by way of reducing the great weight 

 acquired in steeping. The process seems within the means and 

 accomplishment of any farmer, and especially as no accuracy or 

 proportion is requisite. The tank need be no more expensive 

 than a hole dug in the ground, and lined with clay to make it 

 water-tight. 



Another cheap preservative in use is tar from the gas-works. 

 When this tar is applied cold to larch, rough from the saw, and 

 in cool, dry weather, it hardens on the surface, and forms a 

 varnish impervious to wet, and not liable to run in hot seasons. 

 The quantity of tar required when applied in this way is rather 

 considerable, but it is a cheap article in a raw state. Some 

 prefer boiling the tar, along with two ounces of powdered resin 

 to the gallon, and applying it hot. This is also an efficacious 

 method, and requires less tar. 



Paint is generally preferred, because customary ; but a great 

 proportion of the out-door wood-work is not allowed a covering 

 of any sort. Gas-tar possesses the property of being in part 

 absorbed by the wood, and its preservative quality is thus supe- 

 rior to that of any of the oil-paints used. 



V. Draining,* the extent to which practised, and is still 



REQUIRED. 



Little draining of any kind was practised in the county till 

 near the end of the last century ; it was too expensive for the 

 tenant-farmer to take in hand, and the gentleman landowner of 

 that period seldom paid much attention to the improvement of 

 his estate. In the latter half of the century, here and there a 

 " statesman " farming his own property took in hand, at distant 

 intervals, to put in a few roods of drain at a vacant time, to carry 

 off the water from a wet patch of his arable land ; but it was 

 deemed almost an act of impiety to attempt to deprive a bit of 

 meadow or pasture land of its superabundant moisture, so long 

 as it was not dangerous as a mire.f 



* In 1805 Bailey and Culley were ''glad to observe, in many places, great 

 advantages gained both by hollow and surface drains ; some done with great art, 

 by one or more hollow drains running in the direction of the outburst of water, and 

 cut deep enough to get through the bed of sand or gravel in which the water runs, 

 and by that means arrest the source, which drowns the land below it ; but the like 

 intelligence has not in all places prevailed, for we often saw the drains run in 

 parallel directions, perpendicidar to the source, and at such distances as the drainer 

 thought the nature of the soil required : this is more particularly the case where 

 surface drains are used. The hollow drains are filled with stones when they can 

 be got, otherwise with sods." 



t The cry of " run wi' t' reapes (ropes) — a cow i' t' mire," was very common 

 in the early part of the present century. 



