[From Land of Britain, part 44, 1941] [refs still to be inserted]

VI. THE EVOLUTION OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF LAND UTILISATION

BY ELWYN DAVIES

IN early Manx agriculture mixed farming, with the emphasis on cattle rearing, seems to have been general as it was throughout Western Europe. Moore ¹ has suggested the possible existence of cultivation by runrig and as evidence he points to the length and narrowness of the old Manx land-divisions which, he thinks, indicate a former division into strips, and to a record made in 1589 which states that when several tenants who held land jointly could not agree upon a division the land was, apparently, to be divided into strips, which were called " immyr " or butts, one tenant occupying "the one butt and the other the other butt throughout the whole ground." Apparently, in winter, the lands were used in common, probably for pasturing animals, because it was the practice, following an ancient customary law, to keep up the fences between the 25th of March and Michaelmas only.² A statute of 1422 states, " Forasmuch as the land setting hath not been made in due Time, nor read to the people, whereby many have lost their profit of Folding and Manuring that year . . . wherefore be it ordained that the setting be made betyme before Midsomer to the People. . . ."³

This suggests that the holdings were allocated annually but, as Moore comments, the long- continued recurrence of the same names in connection with the same holdings in the manorial records show that this meant little more than the distribution of these holdings between very much the same joint tenants. The description of lands by precise farm-names, which would seem to indicate particular areas held by individuals, does not appear in the manorial records until 1643, about which date, according to Sherwood,⁴ they also started holding by leases, and it may well be that consolidation of holdings into individual farms of fixed extent was not fully accomplished until the seventeenth century. Indeed, it is almost possible to see in the Manx Statutes the process of consolidation and enclosure of holdings proceeding. It was the same statute of 1422, mentioned above, that gave the land-holders the option of erecting fences. In 1582 the height of the hedges was specified at 4½ feet and in 1656 the time during which land might be kept fenced was extended from Michaelmas to All Hallows. But although the record of land-setting of 1643 gives the names of holdings, which would seem to imply that individual farms of definite area were in existence, yet these were not, apparently, of necessity enclosed, because a statute of 1665 ordered that fences should be kept in winter as well as in summer, or, if not, that a herd was to be kept so that the land should not remain " common and as waste all the winter season."⁵ Even as late as 1770 the Exchequer Book has an entry that " till lately the parish of Jurby was an open common in the winter season," the fences being made up for the summer only."⁶

Apart from a statement, by John Merick, Bishop of Sodor, in a letter of 1577, that " . . . the island . . . is rich in flocks, fish and corn . . . ; it not only produces sufficient for its own consumption but annually exports a great deal . . ." ⁷ there is no precise information available of the details of land utilisation until the middle of the seventeenth century. Blundell,⁸ writing between 1648 and 1656, describes the island as abounding in cattle, fish and corn and that " all parts of the Island, as well the north as the south, yieldeth store of all sorts of grain, both barley, wheat, rye and oats (yet of ye last the most), but not only of each satisfying the inhabitants' necessity, but also affording an overplus for exportation unto other parts ; and ye corn of this Island is so purely good as yt you shall not find, no not in England, either better bread or better beer than is there commonly to be sold." ⁸ " This island, besides corn of all sorts, yieldeth good store of flax and hemp . . . ; both honey and wax, not only for the use of the inhabitants, but for exportation also. . . ." ⁹ He states that the practice of liming the arable land had recently been introduced (probably between 1640 and 1650) but apparently the preparation of seaweed for manure was not known. The usual method of manuring was by folding cattle on the land. Good pasture seems to have been limited in extent and the " island's northern part to be far the most healthy and gravelly ground, much resembling the mountainous parts of Wales ; the southern [part] is acknowledged to have good meadow and pasture ground . . . the most and best is in the Earl of Darby's possession, lying in the south part of the Island, near unto his castle of Rushin and in the castle of Man, etc. "¹⁰ The cattle are described as small and poor, like those of Ireland but much poorer than those of England and they fed " for the most part in heathy ground lying continually in the open fields both winter and summer, never housed ; neither is any hay or fodder given them, but are enforced to feed on what they find. . . ."¹¹ The horses are similarly described as small and very poor, but wiry, so that sheep are said to thrive best, and to produce very good wool although inferior to the wool of the Cotswold and Leicester sheep in England. " There hath been no woods in -Man this 140 years past, and I do not remember to have seen any one hedge yt parted either field or pastures, but all were either of turfs or of earth stones or of both. . . ."¹² Fishing, especially of the herring, was clearly important and Blundell claimed that " the sea feedeth more of the Manksmen than of the soil."¹³ Chaloner ¹⁴ writing in 1656 has nothing to add to Blundell beyond mentioning the keeping of goats.

In 1692, in order to promote the manufacture of linen, an Act was approved requiring the owner of every quarterland¹⁵ to plant half an acre of hemp or flax, and the owner of every intack ¹⁶ to plant one-twentieth of an acre, under penalty of a fine of 3s. 4d. a year ¹⁷ and there was inaugurated a system of prizes for the best yarn or the best cloth in each sheading, ¹⁸, while skilled weavers were brought in from England to act as instructors. A writer in 1681 comments on the good quality of the barley, peas and beans but the grassland seems to have been poor-" Their meadows are either benty or full of rushes . some by the sides of rivers much better. "¹⁹

The accounts of Manx agriculture written towards the end of the seventeenth century and during the eighteenth century, generally agree with Blundell's statements, adding new facts occasionally. Sacheverell writing at the end of the seventeenth century states that the farmers had recently been taught to use seaweed for manure but that although marl was available in the island they had neither the money nor the skill to use it. He describes the quantity of flax and hemp grown as small, but that there were " all sorts of grain in reasonable plenty " and also plenty of pigs, goats, geese, hens and ducks.²⁰ An account of the island appeared in Bishop Gibson's edition of Camden's Britannia in 1695 but this follows Blundell closely and Speed's account follows that of Camden, while Cox's ²¹ account follows those of Blundell and Sacheverell. Between about 1660 and 1704 Manx agriculture appears to have deteriorated owing to difficulties about rent (which had been doubled during the first half of the seventeenth century when many customary payments in kind and obligations were abolished) and insecurity of tenure owing to the lord's disputing of the permanency of their tenants' right of holding and so more attention was paid to the fisheries than to the land. But in 1703 the Act of Settlement confirmed the ancient customary estates to the respective tenants and established a tenure which is akin to customary freehold in England. After 1703 agriculture revived and improved. The cultivation of flax was again encouraged by legislation and the Government distributed Dutch flax-seed free of charge. Wild swine, which lived in the hills, were exterminated.²² About this time, too, the growing of potatoes became established because at a Church Convention in 1712 it was noticed that much land had been given to this crop during the past five or six years and all persons were ordered to render their tithe of this crop as of others.²³ Thus Wilson wrote that " the vallies betwixt them [i.e. the mountains] afford as good pasture, hay, and corn, as in most other places. . . . The black cattle and horses are generally less than those of England ; but as the land improves so do these, and of late there have been some bred here as large as in other places." ²⁴ He states that in the north of the island the soil was dry, barren and sandy but that it could be much improved by marling were it not that the farmers preferred the cheaper practice of liming their land. Potatoes seem to have thriven in the island and to have spread apparently at the expense of grain crops, because Waldron, writing some ten years later, denies the usual statements claiming abundance of wheat, barley and rye, for use and for export, and states, " Whereas 'tis notoriously known, that the little wheat they have is so bad, that those who eat bread made of it have the corn from England or Ireland. As for rye, I never saw any there ; barley for the most part they have enough of to make malt for themselves, but never to send abroad. Oats is their chief produce of which they make bread, as also of potatoes ; the land affording such abundance that fields of them are almost as common as grass." The sheep and black cattle he describes as small but good, and hogs and goats were numerous, " kid being as commonly eat[en] there as lamb in England."²⁵

During the latter half of the eighteenth century the island took part in the general improve- ment in agriculture. Although the first attempt to drain the Curragh was made as early as 1648, the draining of most of the small lakes and bogs of the island was done in 1756, 1763 and 1776.²⁶ Clover was introduced about 1770 and about twenty years later turnips were first cultivated. Marling of land was first practised towards the end of the century and barley replaced oats as the chief grain crop, while wheat became more important especially in the north of the island. Scottish and English farmers who bought or rented farms were the leaders in this " new agriculture."

It is fortunate, therefore, that Basil Quayle ²⁷ wrote the first General View of Manx agriculture in 1794. His work, of small bulk and great merit, was obviously written at a time when changes were affecting the agricultural economy of the island. Quayle states that until some thirty years before he wrote there was no spirit of improvement in agriculture, partly because the fisheries rather than the land held the farmers' chief interest, but that improvements were now being effected and production expanded although there was still much land capable of great improve ment. Yet, " on some estates in particular, as compleat tillage, and as regular a system of husbandry, is in practice, as can be seen in any place where the nature and situation of the lands are equal."²⁸

Agricultural implements were being improved. Ploughs " of seasoned timber " were being introduced from England and Scotland, improved harrows and drilling and hoeing machines were being adopted. New enclosures were made in the uplands and with the improvement of roads and of wheeled carriages which were replacing transport by pack-horses with panniers and by "sledges and cars of the construction common in Ireland," lime and manure were being applied on upland farms. Lands generally were dressed with seaweed, lime, marl and dung, and the practice of folding sheep and cattle was becoming less common. Heathy land was improved by liming, tillage and sowing of grass seed. The draining of the Curraghs was being extended and some 5oo acres of it, apparently already drained, were laid down to hay.

Barley was the chief grain crop, occupying over a half of the arable land annually, and it was grown for malting and for bread. Oats were a general crop but were of special importance on upland farms. Wheat was more restricted in its distribution since barley did better, while the acreage of rye had declined to small proportions and the land formerly sown with rye had, since the adoption of marling, been given to wheat. The north of the island, with its supplies of marl, was apparently the chief grain-growing area since it is said that here there was a surplus which was exported to other parts of the island and to England. Beans were not much grown because wet weather at the end of the harvest made them difficult to save, but peas, although insignificant in the south of the island, were'" a material part of their husbandry " in the north. Potatoes, for which the manure was usually appropriated, were general and were cultivated in lazybeds on upland farms and on coarse soils. Another method of cultivation was by ploughing dung under, levelling, and planting with dibbles or sticks. Good crops of turnips were grown but the importance of potatoes was such that dung could not be spared for their large-scale cultivation. The growing of carrots had fallen into disuse but different kinds of winter cabbage were grown for feeding milch cows. Almost every farmer and cottager grew a little flax for his own use and for sale, the export of linen being worth £5,000 annually, but it was too precarious a crop to be grown on a large scale and it was rarely that more than an acre was sown by any one person. Hemp was grown only in gardens and on very rich patches of ground ; it was very rarely grown in fields. The growing of sown-grasses especially red and white clover, trefoil and rye- grass, was common in both upland and lowland.

" A regular rotation is little understood or practised, it being the almost universal custom to crop the lands after manuring as long as they are able to bear corn ; then either to surrender them to grass, or renew them by a fresh dressing."²⁹ Leases usually contained clauses restricting continuous cropping. Three successive grain-crops were the usual limitation and then the land was to be put to grass seed or to some form of fallow. On good land the most approved rotation, according to Quayle, was potatoes or turnips, well dunged, followed by barley, clover, wheat, and oats or peas in the fifth year ; on inferior land oats replaced wheat and the rotation was shortened and the land was left under sown-grass until dung was available for its treatment ; on poor land sown-grass was followed by two or three crops of oats and then it was allowed to revert over several years to natural grassland and was left as pasture until it was considered capable of another similar cropping. In the north of the island it was customary to take twelve, or even fifteen, crops of peas and barley alternately, with marling alone, although some inserted crops of sown-grass in the rotation and grew wheat. Barley, although sown most commonly after potatoes, also followed wheat, or peas, or grassland, but it never followed oats without a pre paratory manuring and this was seldom done except where seaweed was available. Wheat was grown usually after potatoes, or after clover, or on summer fallow, and it rarely followed other grain. Oats, on the other hand, were sown usually on broken grassland or after other grain while peas were considered a good preparation for a heavy crop of barley. Flax was always grown on land in good condition and never after grain ; potatoes or root crops were considered a good preparation and grasses were found to do well when sown with flax since the uprooting of the flax acted as a hoeing. Wheat was found to produce fair crops after flax.

Quayle states that not much attention was paid to the rearing of livestock and that cattle were reared indiscriminately rather than bred. The pastures were better suited for rearing than for fattening livestock; between 200 and 300 head of oxen and heifers were exported to England annually. Of dairy produce, butter was more important than fresh milk and farms which had 12 to 20 milch cows made cheese. Between 800 and 1,000 crocks of butter, of 30 lbs. each, were the average annual export to England. Much land was given to cows and most farms kept at least six, some kept twelve, but few had herds of twenty beasts. The growing of turnips and potatoes meant that more cattle were stall-fed but October and November are still described as the chief slaughtering months. The numbers of sheep had been reduced by a third during the past twenty years because the enclosed land brought better returns from crops, and except in the uplands few farmers had flocks of more than a hundred. The usual number of horses in lowland farms is given as a team of two or three horses to thirty tilled acres and twice this number in upland farms where the animals were smaller and the land more difficult. The number of ponies reared had become much reduced and few were now exported to England. Almost every cottager kept one or two pigs which were fattened on potatoes and grain, and the hams and bacon were sent to England. Hens, ducks, geese and turkeys were numerous. The fisheries engaged some S,ooo men in summer and these, after tilling the land and sowing the crops, left the harvesting to their families so that much grain was injured through lack of sufficient hands at harvest. Drainage, fencing, tithe-commutation, improvement of livestock and a more regular rotation of crops are mentioned by Quayle as the most pressing needs of Manx agriculture, while Curwen,³⁰ writing in 1807, expresses the need for providing more winter food and more cattle-yards and sheds as the first step towards the provision of more manure and an improved agriculture. He says that few turnips were grown and deplored the effect of the herring fisheries on agriculture.

Thomas Quayle ³¹ in his survey of Manx agriculture published in 1812 confirms Basil Quayle's statements concerning barley, oats, wheat, rye, beans, peas, potatoes (grown with fern and furze as well as with dung, lime and seaweed compost, for manure, and now planted most commonly in ridges, giving greater yields), carrots, flax, hemp, and sown-grasses. He states that turnips, although yielding good crops, suffered from the preference shown for potatoes, but that their cultivation was spreading especially at the expense of cabbages. Yet in 1811 there were less than Goo acres under turnips. They were being grown on all soils except those that were poorly drained and were used mainly for the feeding and fattening of cattle. 'fares (vetches) which were fed to horses, were a rare crop, while lentils were unknown. Another report written in 1812 states that barley was gradually getting into disrepute because it was damaged more easily than oats in the wet season.³²

It was still the practice to dress land with lime, marl and seaweed and to raise white crops to exhaustion, but scientific rotation of crops was beginning to be adopted and it was usual to begin with a following crop and end the cropping by sowing grass seeds and after taking one or two crops of hay to allow the land to revert to pasture. Thomas Quayle provides more detail of rotations and gives the following four as the most usual : I (i) fallow, or fallow crop manured, (ii) wheat, or barley sown off, (iii) clover and rye-grass or white-grass mown, (iv) second mowing or pasture ; II (1) fallow as before, (ii) wheat, (iii) barley, (iv) oats sown off, (v) mown or pastured ; 111 (1) ley oats or barley, (ii) oats, (iii) fallow crop, manured, (iv) wheat, barley, or oats sown off, (v) clover and rye-grass or white-grass mown ; IV (i) pared and burnt for wheat, sometimes limed, (ii) oats or barley, twice ploughed and seeded, (iii) hay or pasture.

Wheat followed manured or limed fallow, clover ley, or potatoes, or occasionally early-drawn turnips ; barley was grown usually after potatoes or turnips ; sometimes it was sown on rich old leys or on winter fallow well manured and sometimes instead of wheat on clover leys. Oats usually came after ley or it was sown on stubble. Flax was often grown after potatoes and was considered a good preparation for grass seeds. Clover mixed with rye-grass, trefoil and white hayseed was sown with oats and barley, or harrowed in spring on young wheat, while rye-grass was usually sown on land which was being laid down for pasture. Grass seeds were sown, with barley, wheat, oats or flax, for hay or to be followed by permanent pasture but the land was rarely allowed to remain in pasture and still more rarely was it broken up after the first crop.

Dressing of land with marl, lime, sand and seaweed, fish refuse and salt, as well as farmyard manure, was widely practised and on lands so treated the tendency was to grow white crops until the soil was exhausted. Night folding of animals was passing into disuse except on some small farms. In the north of the island, where marl was abundant near the surface, such long-period cropping was common. The first crop grown was usually peas, then peas and barley alternated for about nine crops, with oats sometimes replacing peas, after which the land was sown with oats and grass seed and pastured until it was deemed capable of another such cropping. Among the non-Manx farmers turnips, fallow crops, and manuring and hoeing intervened in this sequence. It was believed that wheat should not be grown for three years after marling, and when wheat was grown it was in the following rotations : I (1) peas, (ii) barley, (iii) oats, (iv) potatoes, (v) wheat, (vi) barley with grasses, (vii) clover and rye-grass hay, (viii) hay or pasture, (ix) wheat, (x) potatoes, or II (i) oats and peas, (ii) barley or oats, (iii) wheat, or III (i) peas (ii) barley with grasses, (iii) hay or pasture, (iv) wheat. Land, in the south and centre of the island, dressed with lime usually bore seven or eight crops of oats and barley, and was rested for four to six years before another such cropping but some farmers had begun to sow clover and hay-seed before the land had become exhausted and after taking one crop of hay to leave it in pasture.

Meadows, according to Quayle, had been much improved through drainage but although the prices of milk and butter were good no land was given entirely to dairying. The old Manx breeds were being replaced by imported breeds from Ireland and England but there was still lack of care in rearing livestock. With the extended cultivation of root-crops, winter feeding had become general, the cattle being brought in on November 12th and turned out of doors on May 12th, dates which reflect the use of the Old Calendar. Attempts had been made by farmers to send regular daily supplies of milk to the towns but these had been abandoned because the demand was irregular on account of tradespeople keeping milch cows and selling milk. Few draught oxen were said to be kept. Sheep were kept on the unenclosed upland pastures in summer and were brought down to lower land for the winter. The upland pastures were without stint but much had become private property although they had not been enclosed. Quayle says that at least a third of the island was unenclosed upland sheepwalks on which a few colts and young cattle were also grazed in summer. These pastures were, in practice, unrestricted as to numbers of beasts and were consequently overstocked. An inquiry into the number of sheep in the island in 1806 gave the figure as not exceeding 18,600, and it was said to be decreasing, since cereal farming was found more profitable and at Douglas mutton was imported from Cumber land. Horses were bred in the north of the island and many were imported from Ireland, while the Manx ponies were then almost extinct. These features followed on the complete establish- ment of the two horse plough in the lowlands, although the old ploughs survived in the upland. Improved tools were slowly producing better results. Thomas Quayle agrees with Basil Quayle and J. C. Curwen as to the chief measures necessary for the improvement of Manx agriculture and he advocates also the planting of woods, which were few in number. He states, however, that the agriculture of the island was then making rapid advances. Most of the land was held in farms of 10 to 150 acres and Quayle states that there were probably not more than sixty holdings of 200 acres and over, and perhaps not more than six or seven farms of 500 acres.

The high price of corn at this time encouraged the exhaustive exploitation of the soil for cereals and led to the breaking of turf high on the slopes of the upland so that it was said that tillage had passed beyond the limits of economic profit.³³ Rents had followed prices upwards so that by 1812 they had often been doubled. These developments proved uneconomic in peace-time. Removal of garrisons and bad seasons dealt severe blows to the agricultural economy of the island. Also, in 1814 an act of 1737 which ruled that debts contracted outside the island could not be recovered there, was repealed and many, who had used the island as an asylum from their creditors, departed. Conditions were further aggravated by the Church's pressing for the collection of tithes of potatoes, turnips and other green crops. The result of these developments was the ruin of many farmers, especially those with small holdings, and there was unem- ployment among the labouring classes, so that emigration to America became common particularly between 1825 and 1837. ³⁵ A process of consolidation of holdings followed. Grain cultivation declined and more land was given to the growing of fodder crops ; animals acquired greater importance in farm economy. Recovery did not come until about 1840. During the next thirty years or so conditions improved generally, with occasional set-backs, but the main features of land utilisation persisted except that commutation of tithes, large-scale drainage of land, and the use of artificial manures, increased production and there were increases not only in the production of cereals, root-crops and hay, but also in numbers and quality of livestock. Honeyman,³⁶ writing in 1869, describes the south as the best-farmed part of the island and gives a five-course rotation of, grass for hay, pasture, oats, potatoes or turnips, and barley or oats with grass seeds, as though it were the general practice except that he mentions that in the north of the island oats did not thrive on account of the frequent marling of the land there and wheat was sown instead. He states that in the Curraghs hundreds of acres remained unimproved and that the mountain pastures were much impaired by the cutting of peat and turf.

The old order, although weakening, prevailed until about 1874 when, owing to importation of cheap grain from other lands, the cultivation of wheat became unprofitable. But already developments were taking place which were to affect radically the economy of the island. The tourist traffic had become a feature of the island as early as 1819 when occasional steam com- munication between it and the main island of Britain was initiated but ten years later regular thrice-weekly sailings between Liverpool and Douglas were established, and from that time the tourist trade seems to have increased gradually. It has been estimated that for the period 1830-50 the average number of visitors to the island annually was about 30,000. In 1852 there was a sudden rise in numbers and for the years 1852-66 an annual average of 50,000 to 60,000 tourists has been estimated, the estimate rising to 60,000 for the years 1866-73.³⁶ In 1873 the visitors numbered about 90,000 but in 1884 when precise records become available the number was 182,669. Between 1885 and 1894 (inclusive) the average annual number was 265,569. In 1895 began a period of marked increase with the numbers of visitors reaching 351,238 in 1900, 459,557 1n 1906 and 615,726 in 1913. Between 1920 and 1930 (inclusive) the average annual number was 491,895, while for the nine years 1931 to 1939 the average figure was 525,268. One result of this rapid development was a greater demand for dairy produce and meat. The change to greater emphasis on pastoral farming was accelerated by the marked movement of population to the towns which gathered force rapidly after about 1850. The proportion of the urban population to the total population was 33 per cent. in 1851 ; by 1891 it had risen to 54 per cent. and during this period the total population of the island showed a fairly natural increase from about 52,400 to about 55,600 in contrast with the marked increase, by immigration, from about 41,000 to about 52,400 between 1831 and 1851. Not only was there impoverishment of the countryside through permanent migration to the towns but in addition considerable numbers of rural dwellers were employed in the towns during the tourist season and so were withdrawn from the land at the time when they were most needed. But there were also other factors operating. The herring fisheries had increased in importance especially during the last decade of the eighteenth century and they seemed to have maintained a steady increase until 1850.³⁸ After this date the numbers of fishermen declined, falling from 3,800 in 1850, to 2,805 in 1852, to 1,845 in 1900, to 590 in 1914, and after the war of 1914-18 the fishing industry declined to very small proportions. This decline affected mainly the south-west of the island where crofting was common. With the decay of the supplementary occupation of fishing many of these crofts ceased to be economic propositions and rural depopulation, followed by consolidation of holdings, occurred and agriculture and fishing became, for the first time, the occupations of separate groups of rural people.

The influence of the growth of the tourist urban centres on agricultural production was accentuated by tile marked expansion of mining for metals in the island, particularly in the Laxey and Foxdale valleys after about 1860, and this helped to draw population away from the land and to increase the numbers of non-agricultural workers.

The results of these changes may be seen in the agricultural statistics which first become available in 1866. The figures for that year make it clear that changes had occurred in land utilisation since the time of the picture drawn by the Quayles of Manx agriculture. Barley, which according to Basil Quayle's statement occupied half the arable land at the end of the eighteenth century, occupied just over 10 per cent. of the arable land and 29 per cent. of the land under grain in 1866, whereas oats had become the major cereal crop. The cultivation of turnips had greatly increased. Both the Quayles say that potatoes were a more important crop than turnips, and according to Thomas Quayle less than 600 acres were under the latter crop in 1811. In 1866 turnips occupied 7,246 acres as compared with 4,302 acres given to potatoes. The growing of flax and hemp had almost ceased and for the years after 1865 the total extent under flax remained under ten acres and soon disappeared completely : the decline of the fishing industry and the ease with which nets and sail-cloth could be imported were probably the chief reasons for the stopping of the cultivation of these fibres although they had always required government assistance. The growing of rotation grasses had also probably increased. With these changes occurred an expansion of animal husbandry, and whereas the number of sheep in the island was said not to have exceeded 18,600 in 1806, it had increased to 55,954 in 1866.

FIG. 9.

The years since 1866 fall into two main periods separated by the war of 1914-18. During the period down to about 1920 there was no marked change in the amount of arable land which varied between about 70,000 and 80,000 acres. The chief feature of this period was the change in the relative importance of the crops grown. Food crops gave place to fodder crops and live-stock farming now became foremost with arable farming contributory to it. This was a marked change from the economy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when the growing of grains for human consumption predominated and livestock farming was a neglected accessory on untillable land. The importation of cheap grain from overseas rendered an approach to self- sufficiency unnecessary and made possible specialization in those crops for which the climate was best suited. Thus wheat and barley lost ground to oats, clover and rotation grasses.

The acreage under wheat declined rapidly between 1874 and 1886 and then more gradually, with years of slight recovery, until lgoo since when it has remained at a low level, usually below 5oo acres, except for a slight increase during the war years 1915-19. The decline in wheat growing was compensated, to some extent, by an increase in the acreage under barley until 1886, after which date the barley crop reverted to, and maintained, approximately its former level until igoo, when a marked decrease set in and continued, reducing the crop to small proportions, until 1920.

The decline in the cultivation of wheat and barley was compensated by a marked increase in the acreage under oats. Oats appear to have replaced barley to a greater extent than wheat because the increase in the oats crop was relatively small, although steady, between 1875 and 19oo when the decline in wheat-growing was most marked and it was after 1900, when the acreage under barley began to fall rapidly, that the oats crop gained ground to reach its peak of production in 1918. The marked increase in the cultivation of oats was accompanied by an equally rapid extension of the acreage under clover and rotation grasses, with the difference that this development occured earlier and was most marked up to 1885. After 1890, when the cultivation of oats increased rapidly, the acreage under clover and rotation grasses increased to about 40,000 acres until 1912 when a sharp decline set in and continued, with slight recoveries, down to 1938.

FIG. 10.

The extended cultivation of oats and rotation grasses reflects the greater importance of cattle-rearing in the island after the middle of the nineteenth century. This is shown particularly by the increase in the number of cattle under two years old during the period up to about 1920, but this was not accompanied by any marked increase in the number of milch cows or of other cattle over two years old. That oats and grasses were the chief fodder crops is suggested by the fairly constant acreage of turnips and swedes during this period, while the potato acreage decreased steadily. The number of pigs reared fell rapidly by about 5o per cent. during the years 1866-70 and a further, but much smaller, decline set in between 1870 and 188o ; the increased sale of fresh milk was probably a contributing factor here. Although the increase in the acreage of land classed as rough grazing was continuous during the period down to 1914-18, it is difficult to know to what extent this may be due to changes in the concept of land so classified during a period when farming, and especially grassland farming, was improving. The numbers of sheep in the island show marked changes within short periods but there was a general increase in their numbers during the years under review, and they acquired far greater importance in farm economy, being no longer regarded merely as users of rough upland grazings but being fattened on root crops and better pastures. Thus occurred a change from a fairly balanced cropping of the three chief cereals to emphasis on oats and seed grasses at the expense of wheat and barley, accompanied by an increase in cattle breeding and, to a less extent, in sheep rearing, mainly for meat. In the areas near the towns the sale of fresh milk has replaced the preparation of dairy products to a considerable extent.

During the years since about 1920 further changes have occurred. The most prominent features have been a decline in arable farming and an increase in sheep rearing. The amount of arable land has decreased rapidly, mainly owing to the withdrawal of land from oats cultivation and from the growing of root crops, especially turnips and swedes. The acreage under clover and rotation grasses has also declined. Much land has passed out of cultivation, as may be seen from the increased extent of rough grazings and of land under permanent grass, not for hay. Livestock farming has also declined, although there was some recovery in the rearing of cattle of all categories until 1935. A feature of cattle rearing during the years after 1914 has been the reduction in the number of cattle of two years and over, which reflects the veering of public taste from mature to young meat and the demand for small joints (as a result of the smaller size of modern families) and for fresh meat frequently. These features are the results of the impover- ishment of the countryside through the movement of people to the towns and of the increased dependence on the tourist traffic, which, although smaller in numbers than in earlier years, is nevertheless becoming more exacting in its demands for accommodation and service as well as for amusement and transport.

References

1 Moore, A. W., A History of the Isle of Man, 2 vols., London, 1900. Vol. I, pp. 51-3.

2 Statutes of the Isle of Man-Douglas. Vol. I, p. 49. Parr's Abstract of the Laws of the Isle of Man, compiled circa 1690. Various manuscript copies with irregular paging-see under Fences.

3 Statutes, Vol. I, p. 14-

4 Sherwood, R., Manx Law Tenures-Douglas, 1899, p. 8.

5 Statutes, Vol I., p. 126.

6 Moore, A. W., The Early Land Systems of the Isle of Man--Yn Lioar Manninagh, Vol. II-Douglas, 1901, pp 40-44.

7 Oliver, J. R., Monumenta de Insula Manniae, Vol. I-Publications of the Manx Society, Vol. IV. Douglas 1860, pp. 87-99

8 Blundell, W., An Exact Chronographical and Historical Discovery of the hitherto unknown Isle of Man (1648-56), Pub. Manx Soc., Vol. XXV, p. 39. Douglas, 1876.

9 ibid p39

10 Ibid., p. 40. :

11 Ibid., pp. 39-40

12 Ibid., p. 41.

13 Ibid., pp. 46-7.

14 Ibid., p. 52.

15 Chaloner, J., A Short Treatise of the Isle of Man (1656), Pub. Manx Soc., Vol. X. Douglas 1864.

16 A " quarterland " is a traditional Manx land division of varying acreage and probably represented, at one time, the holding of a family. The boundaries of a quarterland occasionally coincide with those of a modern farm but usually the quarterland has been sub-divided into two or three or more holdings which may or may not include land in other adjacent quarterlands.

Intacks were lands usually reclaimed from moor and marsh, which did not form parts of quarterlands. Their acreage varied but they were usually small parcels.

17 This act is not in the Statute Book and may not have been enforced-see Moore, A. W., 1900, loc. cit., Vol. I, p. 426.

18 The sheading is an administrative division, of which there are six in the island, each containing three parishes except that the Sheading of Garff includes but two parishes.

19 Moore, A. W., 1900, loc. cit., Vol. II, pp. 914-15.

20 Sacheverell, W., An Account ofthe Isle of Man, Pub. Manx Soc., Vol. I, Douglas, 1859, PP. 12-13.

21 Cox, T., Magna Britannia et Hibernia, London, 1720-31.

22 Moore, A. W., 1900, loc cit., Vol. II, P. 924.

23 Ibid., P. 515.

24 Wilson, T., The History of the Isle of Man-inserted in Gibson's 2nd edition of Camden's Britannia (1722)- see Pub. Manx Soc., Vol. XVIII-Douglas, 1871, PP. 91, 93.

25 Waldron, G., The History and Description of the Isle of Man (1731), Pub. Manx Soc., Vol. XI. Douglas, 1865. P. 2-

26 Moore, A. W., 1900, loc. cit., Vol. 11, P. 922.

27 Quayle, Basil, General View of the Agriculture of the Isle of Man, London, 1794.

28 Ibid., p 11

29 Ibid., p. 30.

30 Proc. Workington Agric. Soc., 1807.

31 Quayle, Thomas, General View of the Agriculture of the Isle of Man, London, 1812.

32 Proc. Workington Agric. Soc., Workington, 1812, P. 183.

33 McCulloch, J. M. D., Western Islands of Scotland, 1819. Vol. II, p. 519.

34 :More, A. W., 1900, loc. cit., Vol. 11, PP. 932-3.

35 Burn, R. C., Brief Notes of a Visit to some of the Agricultural Districts of the Isle of Man, Trans. Highland and Agric. Soc. of Scotland, 1861, PP. 57-'72.

36 Honeyman, J., The Isle of Man, its Agriculture, Climate, etc., Trans. Highland and Agric. Soc. of Scotland, 1869, PP- 359-68.

37 Moore, A. W.,1900, loc. cit., Vol. II, PP. 575-6.

38 Smith, W. C., A Short History of the Irish Sea Herring Fisheries, London, 1923.

Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received The Editor HTML Transcription © F.Coakley , 2007