296 



Farming of Cumberland, 



renders them unable to cope with, places the occupiers of those 

 farms in a disadvantageous position as to the security of the crop 

 on which their greatest dependence rests. 



Few of those farm-houses can accommodate extra hands, as 

 boarders, in the hay season ; and if they could, the want of em- 

 ployment on gloomy or rainy days, which usually occur, allows 

 no alternative but to obtain the utmost possible exertion of the 

 hands belonging to the farm or immediate neighbourhood, when 

 the weather permits. Near towns and villages, where more hands 

 are obtainable at ordinary wages, there is seldom a sufficient ex- 

 cuse for the defective manner in which the hay is too generally 

 secured. It is rare indeed that hay is turned oftener than once in 

 the day. On the appearance of settled weather, the great anxiety 

 is first to get the grass cut : it is then spread out of " swathe," 

 and put into foot-cock. Next day, if other work does not press, 

 it is shaken out, turned once, and put into larger cock, where 

 some let it remain two or three days, while other portions are got 

 into the like state. It is then broke out for carrying, after being 

 turned, if thought needful ; or sometimes carted out of cock, if 

 very dry when put up. Others let the hay rest in foot-cock, or 

 even in swathe ; and if the weather is hot, the upper surface 

 roasts and the under side turns yellow, and both spoil ; too often 

 the work becomes confused, from not knowing which stands in 

 greatest need of doing first ; the crop is injured, and great loss is 

 the consequence. The loss is still greater in bad weather ; and 

 no rule can then be prescribed for working the hay, but to get it 

 dried and secured as speedily as possible. 



In parts of the kingdom where the value of well-got hay is 

 duly appreciated, and the hay season less liable to interruption 

 from bad weather, hands are provided sufficient to stir the newly- 

 cut grass at short intervals till it is fit for the house or stack, and 

 care is taken to neither underdo nor overdo it in drying, as far as 

 the weather will permit. It is to be hoped the greater value of 

 hay secured in this way will induce the farmers of this county to 

 adopt the system ;* but it must be a work of some time. 



Mr. Grainger, of the Abbey Holme, in his address to the Car- 

 lisle District Farmers' Club, in July 1851, says, "The grass 

 should be cut as soon as the first flowers blow, for at that period 

 it contains all the useful qualities of which it is susceptible, and 



* Mr. Benn, when steward to the Earl of Lonsdale, at Whitehaven, had on an 

 average of years 440 acres of meadow and 70 of ley hay under his charge. 

 He availed himself largely of town labour, and managed his heavy crops well. 

 Also Mr. Turner, of Moresby Hall, if the weather is fine, has the grass put into 

 oot-cock on the same day it is cut twice, or occasionally three times, if he has 

 sufficient hands, always shaking out the swathes and cocks by hand, and never 

 leaving it out of cock in the night. It is frequently fit to house or stack on the 

 third day. His farm is close to the sea, and near to labour, ad lihitum, of which 

 he judiciously avails himself.. . . 



