36 
The Farming of Westmorland. 
autumn), and also thrown open to the public for agistment on the 
following terms — aged cattle, 40*.; two-jear-olds, 325,; year- 
lings, 2o5. This privilege was eagerly taken advantage of by 
the low-country farmers, and extensive herds of fine cattle 
covered the ground every summer, in numbers beyond expec- 
tation, coming off in capital condition in autumn. The 
ground, however, was found to be too high for success- 
fully Avintering "Hoggs." In the dry hot summer of 1859, 
when all the pastures in the Vale of Eden were parched, and 
the watering-places dried up, the herbage on Shap Fell was 
succulent and plentiful, and the supply of fine water unlimited. 
In cold wet summers, such as too frequently occur, the results, of 
course, were less favourable. 
This tract is now let to a tenant at a rent of about 800/. per 
annum. 
Many other improvements might be noted on a smaller 
scale, as, for instance, on Mr. Nicholson's farm at Kirkby Thore 
Hall, purchased by Lord Lonsdale a few years ago, in a neglected 
and ruinous condition. The homestead has been rebuilt, the 
greater portion of the farm thoroughly drained, the crooked 
beck-course straightened and embanked, old fences grubbed, and 
new straight fences made, and the whole estate renovated — a credit 
both to landlord and tenant ; and in almost every township may 
be found farms on which the occupier can point to some sub- 
stantial improvement, such as a moss or bog drained and reclaimed, 
heaps of rocks and stones removed, fell-pastures limed, or other 
marks of progress. 
Improvements still KEQuinED. 
Any suggestion of improvements still necessary must be 
travelling over very old ground. Agricultural, like other reforms, 
in the aggregate must begin with individuals, each man re- 
forming himself not so much by striking out new rules and prin- 
ciples as by acting up to tiie old ones, which, as in higher 
subjects, though universally recognised, are but too rarely acted 
up to. 
Numerous points of detail calling for amendment have 
already been mentioned in the preceding pages. The following 
may be summarised : — 
L A better education for the rising agricultural population. 
In dealing with the various manures now pressed on his notice, 
and in conducting many of the operations on the land, the farmer 
has in some measure to grope his way in the dark, and to trust 
to chance. It is impossible that farmers should all be chemists 
and geologists or botanists, but it is certain that the rising 
