The Farming of Westmorland. 
11 
Consideiincj tlie above circumstances, there is more land 
ploughed than there ought to be. Wheat is grown, after costly 
bare fallows, about Newby, up to GOO feet ; and oats, about Shap, 
up to 900 feet above the sea-level. In a cold wet summer the 
crops never get properly ripe, and oats often stand out till 
October or November. On steep slopes the heavy rainfall washes 
away all the best soil. All hinds of rural reform are slow of 
accomplishment, so hard is it to move out of the accustomed 
track, and numerous are the excuses why land, under the above 
circumstances, is not turned to grass. One reason is, the land 
has been so long and hard ploughed that " it won't grass," but 
requires an outlay for seeds, manure, subsequent top-dressings, 
and years of patient waiting, with little return, which very few 
farmers can afford ; neither, even if they had the capital, could 
they be fairly expected to lock it up in the absence of a proper 
lease or security. 
At the same time, it would be a great error to rush into the 
opposite extreme. Westmoreland is admirably adapted by nature 
for breeding and rearing stock, which must remain in-doors for 
many long months in winter, and could not be kept as they are, 
or in anything like their numbers, without an ample supply of 
oat-straw and turnips. 
The vales of Kent, Lune, and Eden, the neighbourhood of 
Milnthorpe and Burton, &c., are moreover fitted naturally for 
partial tillage, and if proper attention be paid to cleaning and 
manuring, and rotation of crops, with a rest of two or three 
years in grass between each course of cropping, these soils may 
be rendered more productive, more profitable to the farmer, and 
permanently to the owner, in tillage than otherwise. 
A safe rule would be, in high, cold, and especially undrained 
localities, plough none; in more favoured districts, plough only 
for home consumption, making all into manure at the home- 
stead. 
Another influence of the mountainous chraacter of the county 
is backward vegetation in spring and unseasonable frosts. On 
the hill-sides there is rarely any vegetation till May. Snow- 
storms occasionally occur even in that month, and in 1860 deep 
drifts remained in hollows amongst the rocks on Helvellyn till 
July, returning again in October. It must be noted, however, 
that there is now much less snow than formerly. The older 
inhabitants remember snow lying on the ground for several 
weeks at a time, whereas it now is seldom seen for more than a 
few days at once. When the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway 
was made in 1844, Avith its deep rock cutting on Shap Fell, 
many were the prophecies that it would be snowed up every 
winter — an event, however, which has not yet happened. 
