An Agricultural Survey of the Northern Province
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alANNINI FetV Item Or ry6MiCSI Rit .W LTURAL LIBRARY An Agricultural Survey of the Northern Province The counties of Durham, Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmorland By J. A. HANLEY, A. L. BOYD and W. WILLIAMSON Department of Agriculture, [Armstrong College, Newcastle upon Tyne 1936 An Agricultural Survey of the Northern Province The counties of Durham, Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmorland By J. A. HANLEY, A. L. BOYD and W. WILLIAMSON Department of Agriculture, Armstrong College, Newcastle upon Tyne 1936 CONTENTS PAGE Part 1.—Introduction .... ... 5' Part 2.—Topography and Climate .. 8 Part 3.—Sub-division of the Northern Province into districts of similar farming types and possibilities .... 15 Part 4.—The Agriculture of each district: District I. Tweedside •••• . .. 21 5, II. The Cheviot Hills . 26 III. East of Wooler •••• .. 29 55 IV. Bamburgh .... ... 32 55 V. Coquetdale .... •••• .... 36 55 VI. Morpeth—Alnwick (west of Great' North Road) .... •••• 38 55 VII. Morpeth—Alnwick (east of Great North Road) •••• .. 40 55 VIII. Otterburn—Bewcastle . 47 55 IX. Morpeth.—Hexham .... .. 53 55 X. Newcastle and Durham . •• 57 55 XI. The Solway Strip .... ... 61 5, XII. Wigton 70 55 XIII. Brampton .... 75 75 XIV. Cockermouth ... .. • •• 78 55 XV. Seascale 84 52 XVI. The Lake District 88 55 XVII. The Eden Valley .. .. •••• 90 55 XVIIIA West Durham and Hexhamshire .... 91 55 XVIIIB. The Pennines .. ••• . 98 5, XIX. Darlington .... .. •• •••. 100 XX. Kendal . .. .... 104 Part 5.—The location of non-statutory small-holdings •••. 109 Part 6.—Distribution of electricity •••• •••• •••• .... 115 Part 7.—Some conclusions •••• ••• •••• •••• .••• 119 PART I. INTRODUCTION. The need for more precise information about the possibilities of developing a more intensive agriculture (including horticulture) in various parts of the country, became apparent during conferences on large-scale land settlement. It is not intended to discuss here a question which has called forth such widely different views on an economic problem of considerable national as well as local importance, but if British agriculture is to be planned along lines which will make for a better and more reasonable, and altogether more desirable utilisation of our land, some systematic survey of the possibilities of each district is essential. More recently this need has been further emphasised as a result of the far-reaching suggestions on necessary improvements in the diets of those people existing on low scales of family income and on the question of a safe food supply in times of national danger. The need is pressing for increased consumption— and therefore home-production—of protective portions of the human diet such as live-stock products and fruit and vegetables. Further, increased live-stock farming will ensure a larger area of grass land of a quality fit to plough out at short notice for wheat growing. The work here described was made possible by the generosity of the Rt. Hon. David Lloyd George, 0.M., M.P., who provided the money necessary for this comparatively quick survey of the Northern Province. The grant to the College funds was quite unconditional and no restrictions were placed on the publication of the results nor on the uses to which they might be put. Recent requests from various sources for information on the general position of the agricultural industry in the Northern Province, the possibilities of its absorbing more labour, and the future prospects of small-holders have merely emphasised the lack of specific evidence, and the inadequacy of the samples available for the determination• of reliable data. Mr. D. H. Dinsdale, Adviser in Agricultural Economics at Armstrong College, submitted memoranda for the industrial economic surveys of the North-east Coast and Cumberland and Furness carried out from 1931 to 1933. A report was also prepared for the same purpose on the horticultural possibilities of Cumberland by Mr. Brooks, of Newton. Rigg Farm School, Penrith. The memoranda covered the following points For the North-east Coast Area :— (1) Brief descriptive account of the agriculture of the area. (2) The trend of employment in agriculture in the area. (3) The changing emphasis in farming in the area during the post-war period. (4) Future possibilities. For the survey of Cumberland and Furness:— (1) The course of agricultural prices. (2) The trend in agricultural development. (3) The trend in agricultural employment. (4) The future outlook. 5 And by Mr. H. E. Brooks:— The Prospect of increasing Horticulture in Cumberland." More recent work of a survey character has dealt with Poultry Enterprises, and a report embodying the results of surveys covering the Northern and West Midland Provinces was published in 1935. Soil survey work in Northumberland began in 1935, and the first maps and work on modern soil survey methods will be ready in 1936-37. The land utilisation survey has already covered a good deal of the Province, and some maps have already been published. Extension of the work by following up the general survey and obtaining more sr- geographical and agricultural details is proceeding. At the commencement of this agricultural survey, however, it was felt that the most valuable preliminary information would be con- cerned with questions of adaptability of land, farms and farmers to changes in methods or intensification of land utilisation, so it was decided to determine first the extent of areas of similar farming types and possibilities within the Province. Armstrong College, Newcastle-on-Tyne, is the agricultural advisory centre for the Northern Province, consisting of the counties of Durham, Northumberland, Cumberland and Westmorland. The funds provided were sufficient to cover the cost of one year's work, employing two field workers, whose chief duties were to obtain data from farms. Obviously no adequate survey of the economics of farms in the area was possible in the time. The intention was to obtain all the informa- tion possible on the farm practice as it exists now, how it has reacted to the post-war conditions, the adaptability of land and farmer and farm worker, and the possibility of putting the land to fuller use. A surveyor, who was familiar with the farming of Durham and Northumberland, took over the eastern portion of the Province, whilst the western portion was in the hands of a surveyor brought up on a farm in Cumberland, and very familiar with farm practice in that county. The main points taken into consideration were :— FARMS A.—TYPE OF HOLDING 1. Some general ideas on sizes of holdings, e.g., (a) less than 50 acres;(b) 50-100 acres; (c) 100-300 acres;(d) over 300 acres. 2. Intensity of cropping and stocking. 3. Influence of quality of land, exposure to weather, farm steadings, or methods of farming on 2. B.—LIVE-STOCK 1. Kinds of live-stock kept with special reference to poultry, pigs, dairy cows. 2. Animal products sold off, i.e., milk; eggs; fat poultry; pork or bacon pigs; store pigs; cattle or sheep; fat lambs, sheep or cattle. 3. Breeds and crosses used, and systems of managing live-stock. C.—CROPS a 1. Rotations. 2. Arable crops grown, with special reference to potatoes; wheat; sugar beet; market garden and glass house crops, and any unusual crops. Varieties used. 6 3. Quality of grass land. 4. Types of rough grazings, whether heather, bracken, white bent, etc. 5. Afforestation. D.-1. Approximate rents or land values. 2. Fences. 3. Buildings. SOILS 1. General description. 2. Inherent defects, e.g., wetness, acidity, etc. 3. Defects caused by colliery subsidence, smoke, etc. WATER SUPPLIES 1. Sources of water. 2. Drought effects. ECONOMIC FACTORS 1. Extent of industries other than agriculture providing consum- ing areas. 2. Skill of people in rural industries including arable cropping, milking, milk products, calf rearing, sheep, beef produc- tion, poultry, pigs, vegetables, flowers, etc. 3. Presence of agricultural factories. 4. Markets. 5. Communications. 6. Availability of electricity, coal, etc. METEOROLOGICAL DATA 1. Rainfall. 2. Drought. 3. Frost. The farms were taken more or less at random, and we are indebted to all those farmers who helped us by providing so much information, some of it of a confidential nature; without their co-operation the survey would scarcely have been possible. We have details of the management of about 600 farms for the whole Province and descriptions of a still larger number of soils. Special attention was given to recent changes in farming methods. The information collected has enabled us to sub-divide the area into twenty districts, according to the farming systems, including recent developments and adaptability. It is not claimed that the boundaries are exact. In many cases they must be arbitrary and always elastic; every district contains farms which have broken away from the general local custom. PART 2 TOPOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE The area covered by the survey consists of the Northern Province of the Ministry of Agriculture's Advisory Scheme, an area which shows very considerable topographical differences. The essential f acts may be stated briefly, by referring to the, three hill regions : the Cheviots in the north, the northern Pennines in the centre and the Cumbrian Hills in the west. To the east is the coastal plain extending from the Tees to Berwick-on-Tweed, gradually rising to the foot-hills of the Cheviots and the Pennines westwards. The Cumbrian group of mountains is separated from the Pennines by the Valley of the Eden. To the north of the Cumbrian group there is the low Carlisle Plain, and further south the coastal strip extending from Maryport through Whitehaven and Ravenglass to Millom. This strip is, for the most part, very narrow, the mountains approaching the coast in the southern portion of it. The low land on the east side is generally more uniform in character than the low land in the west, and it is, of course, unpro- tected from winds from the easterly points of the compass.