Farming of Cumberland, 



299 



feeders are more careful of the hay tliey are at the trouble of 

 pulling from a hard mow, than of what is brought into them 

 ready for lifting and placing before the cattle ; and hitherto the 

 practice of feeding by weight has not come into use, as it easily 

 might if the hay were cut into four-inch chaff. On most of the 

 small farms where the cattle are attended by members of the 

 family, the pulling of hay is strictly and properly attended to. 

 But on larger farms, where cattle are of necessity committed to 

 the care of hirelings, under the master's eye only when his other 

 avocations permit, and the hay brought in by the cart-load during 

 the season of feeding, the waste is often very great. But it is 

 when the hay is lifted in flakes and layers from the top of the 

 mow, that the greatest waste is committed ; for it is commonly 

 imperfectly shaken to separate the stems ; and when given in 

 that form, cattle only eat what is loose, and the rest goes for 

 litter. Where the consumption is great, the wages of a lad or 

 woman to pull the hay would soon be saved. 



Not much of the clover crop is cut a second time. It is com- 

 monly eaten off with sheep or cattle ; and is too often suffered to 

 stand till it flowers before being eaten. There is then consider- 

 able waste of crop, and consequent exhaustion of the soil. 



VII. Improvements made since the Report of J. Bailey and 



G. CULLEY in 1805, AND TO WHAT EXTENT STILL REQUIRED. 



Most of the improvements which have taken place since 1805 

 are of a similar character with those of other counties, and are 

 generally mentioned under their respective heads in the course of 

 this essay. 



The embankment of 250 acres of Millom Marsh by the late 

 Earl of Lonsdale is a substantial improvement, and might be 

 successfully imitated in the neighbourhood of Burgh * and Rock- 

 lift t to a still greater extent. 



Railroads are certainly improvements of no common order ; 

 but these, running as they do so far along the shore, do not 

 benefit the agriculturists of the interior parts of the county as 

 they would do if carried more inland. 



Tile draining is new, and turnip husbandry with winter feed 

 ing of cattle and sheep much extended and improved since 1805, 

 and both are still progressing. 



Iron implements, the application of steam-power, and thrash- 

 ing-machines, are in a great measure new ; and it may again be 

 noticed that water-power might be much more employed than it is. 



Roads, both public and private, are very much improved, and 



* Pronounced " Bruff." 



t The shifting of the boundaries of these marshes by the floods and tides has 

 lately been to such an extent as to require re-adjustment of the rights of pasturage, 

 and amounts to 200 acres or more. 



