John Bailey and George Culley visited Cumberland in 1793 as part of a Government programme to investigate the state of agriculture throughout the nation and suggest possible improvements. Their report "A General View of the Agriculture of the County of Cumberland..." was published in 1794. Revisions were subsequently issued, and this summary of their Eskdale material includes some details from the 1805 edition.

Please note that only specific Eskdale references are included here- just because a topic is excluded, that does not mean it has no relevance to Eskdale.

SHEEP	WHEAT	VEGETABLES
WOODLAND	MANURES	FARM BUILDINGS
FAIRS & MARKETS

SHEEP
The Sheep breed in this county are only of two kinds. and these two are probably something related; one of them is peculiar to that high, exposed, rocky, mountainous district, at the head of the Duddon and Esk rivers, more particularly known by the names of Hardknott, Scalefell, and Wrynose.

The ewes and wethers are all polled or hornless, and also many of the tups; their faces and legs speckled; but a great portion of white, with a few black spots on those parts, are accounted marks of the purest breed, as are also the hornless tups; they have fine, small, clean legs. We were told that the lambs, when dropt, are well covered; the wool is short, and forms a thick matted fleece, much finer than that of the blackfaced heath sheep; with which variety they seem to have been crossed, as we suspect, from some of the rams having spiral horns, and from some kempy hairs being intermixed amongst some fleeces of the wool: they are a lively little animal, well adapted to seek their food amongst these rocky mountains, in many places stony and bare; and where covered, the soil is thin, but the herbage mostly green, though heath is partly to be found on their summits. They have no hay in winter, and support themselves in the deepest snows, by scratching down to the heath, or other herbage; indeed it seldom happens, but that some parts of the mountains are blown bare which the sheep find out. They do not face the coming storm as reported, but, like other sheep, turn their backs on it; and, in such weather, they generally gather together, and keep stirring about; by which means they tread down the snow, keep above it, and are rarely over-blown.
The loss per cent per ann. is of hogs from 5 to 10.
Ditto, ditto, of old sheep, from - - - - 2 to 5.

The ewes are kept as long as ever they will breed lambs, and are often from ten to fifteen years of age before they are sold. The wethers go off at four one-half years old. Both ewes and wethers are sold from these mountains, and killed without being put on any better pasture. We saw a carcase of one of the wethers at Ravenglass, very good mutton, which weighed 11lb. a quarter, and had 10 or 12lb. of tallow. The ewes weigh from 6 to 8lb. a quarter; the fleece weighs 2lb. and sold last year at 6d. per lb. which we think much below its value.

The mountains on which these sheep are bred, happen not to be common, but belong to Lord Muncaster; as do also the stock that depasture them, which have, time immemorial, been farmed out to herds at a yearly sum. From this circumstance, these farms (three or four in number) have obtained the name Herdwicks; that is, the district of the herds; and the sheep the appellation of Herdwick Sheep. They have obtained such a character for hardiness of constitution, that Mr Tyson, who farms the principal flock, sells a number of tups every year into various parts of the county, to improve the hardiness of other flocks; the price is often as high as two guineas and a half [FOOTNOTE: "We were told by Lord Muncaster's agent, that the family of Tysons have lived in this sequestered spot above four hundred years"].

The Sheep, through the whole of this county (except the Herdwicks) have been descended from the black-faced, coarse-wooled, heath sheep; but by crossing with some other kind, (probably the Herdwicks) many of them have acquired a large portion of white on their faces and legs ....

The management of Sheep over all this county is very similar; through the summer the whole stock is depastured on the commons, and range at large without any person to look after them. In November the whole is gathered together and salved [FOOTNOTE: "The salve is composed of butter and tar, in the proportion of sixteen pound of the former to four quarts of the latter. This quantity will salve forty sheep."]. The old sheep are turned again upon the common, but the hogs are kept in the old inclosures; some part of which has been kept uneaten to support them through the winter. On the approach of snow, the old sheep are brought to the inclosures, or to some part of the common adjoining, and are daily foddered with hay, while the storm continues. Those who have not a sufficiency of inclosed ground for wintering their hogs, take wintering for them, in those parts of the low country where they do not breed sheep; the price, 2s. per head, to have hay in bad weather. In Eskdale and Mitredale, they formerly kept their hogs in the house all winter on hay, and drove them to water once a day; but this practice is now laid aside, and they winter them upon the inclosed grounds, which are previously kept fresh for that purpose. They give no hay to their sheep here, which are a good deal of the Herdwick blood.

The sheep are sold in the autumn, to the graziers ...
Eskdale wethers at 4 1/2 years old, sell for - 11s. to 13s.
    Ewes from 6 to 10 do. sell for - 4s. to 6s.

We found, in general, that the sheep breeders here, like those in most other countries, are very much attached to their own breed. As they have never tried any other, they cannot be admitted as proper judges, of the comparative merit of different kinds of sheep; but supposing, for the present, their own breed to be well adapted to their situation, why not improve them, by selecting the best males and females, and rear a better offspring of their own kind; or by hiring, or buying, some of Mr. Tyson's BEST FORMED and FINEST WOOLLED Herdwick tups ...

Within the last three years, a few long woolled sheep have been introduced into this county- From the Yorkshire Wolds, by Lord Muncaster ... [etc.]

WHEAT
Wheat is a modern production here; a general opinion used to prevail, that wheat could not be grown in many parts of this county. It is not twenty years since Lord Muncaster introduced summer fallows, and the culture of wheat, in the neighbourhood of Ravenglass, where it is now grown with great abundance, as well as all along the coast ...

VEGETABLES [from 1805 edition- no local references in 1794]
Potatoes- are cultivated in one-bout ridges, by almost every farmer, not only for the use of their own families, but for sale ... It is only upon the estate of Sir JAMES GRAHAM, at Netherby, that they are applied to feeding cattle and swine; and by Lord MUNCASTER, to feeding cattle, who also gives them to his horses.
Cabbages- have been cultivated by Lord MUNCASTER, Dr. HARRISON, of Penrith, and a few others in that vicinity.
Carrots- have also been tried by Lord MUNCASTER, who found them a very troublesome and expensive crop, owing to the abundance of weeds, occasioned by the great rains and moisture of the climate.

WOODLAND
From the nakedness of the country along the coast, one would naturally conclude, that the situation was inimical to that production; but Lord Muncaster's extensive and thriving plantation near Ravenglass, shew, that the nakedness of the land is owing to other causes. ...
If a customary tenant plants wood, he cannot cut it without leave of the lord; in some cases, the lord claims it as his own [1805 edition adds "which sufficiently explains why the occupiers do not plant wood"].

MANURES
Slake or Mud, left by the tide, is used in the neighbourhood of Ravenglass, with good effect on the grass lands, fifty or sixty cart loads per acre.
Muscles, are also used in the neighbourhood of Ravenglass, for manure, after the rate of five or six cart loads per acre; they are got on the sands adjoining the coast.
Sea Sand. An accidental experiment of Lord Muncaster's shewed its utility in destroying moss, but it is not used as a manure.

FARM BUILDINGS
... A fold-yard, surrounded by proper offices, with a shed for cattle, are very rare ...
Of these, Lord Muncaster's was by far the most complete.

FAIRS AND MARKETS [from 1805 edition]
Fairs at Ravenglass, 8 Jun and 4 Aug, for cattle
Market at Ravenglass, Fridays "a small market for provisions"