The Farming of Westmorland. 
31 
Is. Ad. ti) 1a-. 8(/. per day. Men-servants, 10/. to 12/. a year. 
Maids, hi. to 6/. Wages have doubled in the last half century. 
Woods. 
The woods of the county amount to only 3*75 per cent, of the 
whole area. Some of these, 'such as Melkinthorpe, Naddle 
Forest, Hclbeck Wood, and numerous small patches in the vales, 
are remnants of the primeval forests which originally spread over 
all the lower parts of the county, and climbed up the breasts of 
the mountains. A considerable portion is coppice-wood, espe- 
cially to the west of Kendal and in the neighbourhood of the 
Lakes. Coppice woods are cut ever}' fourteen or fiiteen years ; 
the crop of a good wood then selling for from 12/. to 18/. per 
acre. As soon as the crop is removed the fences are, or ought 
to be, carefully made up, to guard against the inroads of sheep 
or cattle inflicting permanent damage by cropping the young 
shoots. No further attention is then requisite, except to keep 
open surface drains when the ground is naturally damp or the 
water cannot escape. On properties where the extent of coppice 
is considerable, as about Windermere, Rydal, tScc., it is set out 
in different lots, so as to secure a regular " fall " of one wood 
throughout fifteen years, and a pretty regular annual income 
therefrom. There are no buildings to keep up, the land is 
generally too stony, rocky, and rugged to be of use otherwise, 
and, on the whole, coppices are looked on as a desirable part of 
landed property, A good coppice-wood is injured if large timber- 
trees, termed " standers," are allowed to prevail in it. The pro- 
duce is mainly used for bobbins, of which there are extensive 
manufactories at Staveley and Ambleside. The rest is sold for 
basket-i'ods, hoops, &c. 
Larch plantations have been formed extensively, the late 
Bishop Watson starting them about the commencement of the 
present century. Larch is perhaps the most profitable wood 
grown, coming early to maturity, and always commanding a 
ready sale and high price. Steep, rough, craggy ground, worth 
from 2s. to 55. per acre rent, if on a dri/ subsoil, cannot be turned 
to more profitable account than by planting with larch. The 
young trees must be carefully preserved till they are out of the 
way of being cropped by animals ; and one important point, 
often overlooked till too late, is gradual and judicious thinning, 
for want of which the plants "spindle" and never make any 
proper size. The thinned poles are useful for railing, then they 
come in for pit prop-wood. At fifty or sixty years the larch 
attains its full maturity, and is then worth 50/. or 60/. per acre. 
In favourable situations a larch of fifty years' growth will con- 
