6 
The Farmimj of Westmorland. 
same field — very troublesome to the farmer, and puzzling to the 
valuer. 
Westmorland is certainly a fJ tin- skinned sliallow-soiled county. 
The soils in tlie Vales of Kent and Lune are gravelly, here and 
there intermixed with more loamy patches, well adapted for all 
kinds of crops, but good feeding old grass-lands are in very small 
room. 
The Vale of Eden is sharp and sandy, in some parts with 
gritty deposits from the mountains, forming first-class and early 
turnip and barley soils, and here and there tolerable meadows. 
Commencing near Kirkby Stephen, and running westwards by 
Soulby, Bleatarn, Ormside, Holf, Colby, Morland, Newby, 
Strickland, and Clifton, to the Eamont, is a belt of cold un- 
grateful clay, very profitless to the farmer. All this district is 
naturally wet ; turnips are raised with difficulty, and here the 
bare fallow for wheat still lingers. This may be reckoned the 
poorest land in the county, although resting on the limestone 
formation, which, on the southern side of the county, comprises 
the best land where there is sufficient depth of soil. 
Along the base of the Pennine range is found a continuous 
belt of first-class grass-land, as at Stainmore, Brough Sowerby, 
Brough, Hilton, Murton, Dufton, and Milburn. The meadows 
at Stainmore, although in a high cold climate, produce herbage 
unsurpassed in the county for aroma and feeding c[ualities. 
Similar good meadows are found at Shap, Orton, and Raven- 
stoncdale, and it is always thought good farming to procure 
natural seeds from those places for laying down arable lands in 
the lower parishes for permanent grass. 
As a general rule, in most of the valleys, the deepest, strongest, 
and best soil is found near the base of the mountains, often 
succeeded by a belt of clay or colder land, and, as the river is 
approached, by deposits of sand and gravel. In many places the 
substratum for some distance on each side of a river is little more 
than " shillow," or pebbles, thinly grassed over. The uplands 
are often cold, inferior land, with a stiff impenetrable subsoil, 
locally called "sammel" — gravel and clay indurated — and very 
difficult to drain. 
The mountain vales, such as Mallerstang, Long Sleddale, 
Troutbeck, Grasmere, &c., contain narrow bottoms of productive 
meadow. Although often grazed by the mountain sheep till 
late in May, the crops of hay in July are abundant, and grow 
more rapidly than in lower spots. July, however, being 
almost invariably a wet month, the hay harvest in these high 
districts is often a protracted and weary time, and frequently is 
not over till into September, and occasionally even October. 
