Farming

From 1900 farming carried on in much the way it had always done in the past. It altered little after the first world war. After world war two many of the men coming home from the war didn't want to return to farming, and many of the women didn't want to return to being farm servants so the nature of farming changed. Although some of the farmers had a reserved occupation, depending on acreage, and they stayed at home.

So the number of farms and the number of people who farmed on them was greatly reduced. There were not the number of horses, the main thing that a man valued his farm by, not money. According to Peter Mark in 1931 if 'you had three horses you were a happy fellow'.

Before 1939 the farmers wives made their own butter. Mrs. Molly Jackson tells how milk was separated from cream on long leads and stones. The cream was put into a large stone jar to settle and then to make butter. This was made in a churn with paddles turned by a handle on top. It was made into pound butter pats, called 'scotch hands' Molly's mother made a pound of butter in a round pat and put the imprint of strawberries on it, so that when it went to market people would know that was her sign; she later went on to make oblong butter pats. In the 1930's butter was 7d (3 pence) a pound and the co-operative bought it. Eggs were a 1/- (5pence) a dozen. Some took their excess butter and eggs to market in Kendal.

In 1939 milk was collected in 12 gallon kits, and then tankers, to go to Libby's factory in Milnthorpe. The milk was paid for monthly and was the first regular income the farmers had been given. Milking machines were first used at Ulpha and Fell End in 1942. Hardly anyone cut peats now, whereas it had been a thriving industry before the war. There was no thinning of turnips or cutting of kale to do now because cows were fed differently in winter.

The way staff was hired now was different. Hitherto there had been 'hiring fairs'

at Kendal and Ulverston to hire farm workers and Billy Jackson told me of the Hiring Fair at Ulverston that spread right from the station down to the Market Place. It lasted for a whole day, and went on for many years after that, until after the First World War. To be hired as an agricultural servant the pay was 5/- (25pence) a week and we got paid £6 every six months. 'I went into agricultural service when 1 was 13 and finished when I was 21 years of age, and I was on my own farm (High Fell End) for 55 years' said Billy. In June Irishmen came over from Ireland to help with hay time and other jobs. If it was wet they used to work on the roads, laying kerbs and water pipes.

'Fruit and vegetables were all bottled in Kilner jars, eggs were put into isinglass. You used to harvest your own corn and have it groUlld at the mill, and we used to make our own butter and cheeses. We had to turn the cheeses (weighing 25-50Ibs) over every day. We had pigs which we killed every so often, and shared in turn with our neighbours. We would cure our own hams and bacon and hang them up from the ceiling to mature We had our own fowl and eggs, and honey to sweeten things, home baking and jams, and baking our own bread. You had to be self-sufficient in those days', remembers Billy.

Geoff Warner who has farmed most of his life in Witherslack told me of the pattern of the farming year, which, depending on the weather, was as follows:

January Manuring the fields, stock was inside. February Manuring during plaughing.

March Sowing of oats, barley, swede, and turnips. April Sow cereal crops, and potatoes. May Cut peats

12th May stock were turned out into fields. It was changeover day for the tenancies of farms

.June Haymaking July Haymaking

August Harvest time

September Damson picking and apple picking. October Dig the potatoes up.

November 12th November stock went inside, changeover day for tenancies of farms.

December Maintainance, looking after stock inside.

Lambing went on in the spring, depending on the breed of sheep. Calving went on most of the year, but often in September as winter milk bought a better price.

Harvest Time: Most farmers grew a field of oats or wheat. This would be cut, and the sheaves tied by hand, and the sheaves stood up in stooks to dry and taken home and stacked in the Dutch barn. In those days two tons of fertiliser had to do the lot, not like it is to-day.

Binders were invented at the begining of the Second World War to cut and tie the

grain, and the sheaves were dried in the some way and taken home. When all the harvest was in the home, the thresher started to go round to the farms. Many hands were needed, and all the fanners helped each other.

Larry Walling told me of threshing grain with a Chaplows steam outfit. The grain had been harvested under damp conditions and the mowsteads were very solid and dusty and would not slide into the bale chamber. He was about 15 years of age and was instructed to get on the stationary bale and his job was to push the straw with a fork into the bale chamber. Clouds of dust surrounded the outfit all day. The men in the barn were working under very dusty conditions, made worse by the noise of the traction engine blowing through the barn. By mid-afternoon half the staff had gone home suffering with the dust and smoke of the thresher.

The strings were cut off all the sheaves which were thrown into thc thresher. The grain was shaken out and came down the shute and was put into bags, and at the other end the stalks came out as bales of straw. These were used for bedding.

Hay time: At the begining of the century the grass was cut by scythes. It was then turned and and rowed up with rakes and forks. Hot sun and wind were needed to dry it. Many paid hands would be needed to turn it and put into haycocks, and fork (two pronged forks) on to the cart and to take it home.

During World War II Land Girls eame to replace the farm labourers who had gone to war. They came from all over the country to work on the farms. Low Wood had three, North Lodge and Ulpha had two each and Beek Head had one for example. Later on they had Italian prisoners of war from Bela Camp, they were

followed in time by German prisoners of war. They spoke English better than we could speak Italian or German and we managed by indicating what was to be done says Geoff Warner.

Eventually mowing machines drawn behind horses were replaced by tractors and more sophisticated machinery, and this was the end of horses as working animals. The first Fordson tractor was at Ulpha in 1942-1943. Others were around from the begining of the war doing contract work for the War Agricultural Committee. Many machines were available for turning, shaking and 'rowing up' the hay and raking the field afterwards.

The hay was taken home loose until balers were invented. The first one was at Witherslack Hall in 1953. Hay time was now much easier, and less labour intensive than it had been. Hay was easier to load and easier to stack. Not everyone could afford a baler so farmers who had one shared them with others. When the hay was all ready and it depended on the weather, waiting for the baler could be a tense time.

Some farmers still make hay but nowadays it is mostly grass that is harvested in the form of silage. Grass is cut, wilted and collected into high sided trailers and put into stacks. Sometimes now it is baled into big bales and sealed in a large black polythene wrapper until is needed in the winter for feed.

Young Farmers are encouraged to join the Kent Estuary Young Farmers at Milnthorpe between the ages of 10-26. They operate between September and May.

They have competitions of walling and hedging, speaking competitions, a Brains Trust, and general quizes, and are always ready to offer help in anything to do with the village.