10 
The Farmiiuj of Westmorland. 
resident (Mr. Samuel Marshall) who has persoialhj, and with 
vinwearied zeal and accuracy, registered the rain-gauge and 
barometer and thermometer for the long period of forty-five 
years. The following diagram of the rainfall at Kendal is drawn 
from his observations, from 1821 to 1866. From 1811 to 1821 
the registers were kept by Messrs. Gough and Harrison. 
The averages, in decades, are as follows — 
iTichea. 
1811 to 1820 inclusive 50-850 
1821 to 1830 „ 56-365 
1831 to 1840 „ 55-218 
1841 to 1850 „ 51-311 
1851 to 18G0 „ 45-654 
0 years— 1861 to 1866 „ 53-442 
The diagram does not indicate regular wet and dry cycles. 
The average rainfall appears to be gradually decreasing. Pringle 
says the fall, in 1792, was 83 inches. The fall at Ambleside, in 
1864, was 74-40; in 1865, 65-78; in 1866, 94-10! while that 
at Appleby, in 1866, was only 39 36, and at Brougham Hall, 
44-71. The fall at Appleby for the last ten years averaged 
33 inches. 
It is now getting quite fashionable to keep a rain-gauge, but 
to be generally useful they should all be put under systematic 
regulations and rules, with allowances for situation, height above 
the sea, and other circumstances. 
The average number of rainy days at Kendal is 176 in the 
year. The mean temperature about 47"^. 
The rainfall seems excessive, as compared v/ith many other 
counties, although the number of rainy days is not in proportion. 
The amount of wet, however, makes ploughing operations and 
cereal crops very riskful and uncertain, and often proves exces- 
sively inconvenient in hay-time, besides impeding out-of-door 
work generally ; yet from the light, thin, and gravelly nature of 
most of the soil, and the rapid slopes for quitting the water, two 
or three weeks of warm dry weather set the I'armers crying out 
for rain. 
Generally speaking the county is well watered with clear 
streams and springs, but even a slight drought soon betrays weak 
places all over the land, where, thinly concealed, lie boulders, 
rocks, large stones or " cobbles," and beds of hungry sand, 
gravel, or " sammel," from which the herbage or crops speedily 
deteriorate till restored by welcome rain. The Westmorland 
farmer is rarely altogether satisfied with the weather, which, at 
all events, affords him a never-failing topic for conversation and 
speculation on change ; but on the whole the abundance of 
moisture must be looked upon as a beneficial arrangement. 
