The Land's End Peninsula: The Influence of History on Agriculture

development on our moorland fringes. One such area, which has recently been investigated, and where public and private investment might result in increased food production, is the Land's End Peninsula of Cornwall. Here, over an area of about 55,000 acres west of a line joining Penzance and St. Ives, is some of the finest early vegetable and flower land in the country, some very good dairying land, and moorland which is as bleak and depressing as any in Britain. In many parts of highland Britain, between the regularly culti? vated land of the valleys and the rough grazings of the upper slopes, there are narrow belts of enclosed rough grazings which have been cultivated from time to time whenever market prices made the effort worthwhile. But here in the western tip of Cornwall, a casual observer is struck by the great number of enclosed rough grazings and by the irregular manner in which they are found amongst improved pastures. The dyke-like stone "hedges" represent a great deal of time and effort, and one inevitably asks if this land was not put to better use in the past. Yet these uplands which are windswept and damp, almost completely lacking in trees, and scattered with declining, depressed settlements do not appear conducive to agriculture, in contrast to the lower slopes and coastal pockets. Many visitors therefore are apt to consider existing dissimilarities in agricultural values as inevitable and due to basic physical differences. Early in 1952 the Research Group of the Agricultural Land Service of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries began a general investigation into the possibilities of developing this virtual wasteland. A preliminary study of physical conditions in the peninsula was essential to avoid wasted effort, should basic influences, such as soil and climate, preclude agricultural development. If however these did not prove to be insuperable obstacles, it would be reasonable to ask why certain areas were lying idle whilst neighbouring fields were being intensively stocked with dairy herds, or producing valuable crops of early vegetables and flowers. An answer, it was thought, might be found in the long history of the district. The Land's End Peninsula is essentially a granite mass rising from the sea, with small areas of old Palaeozoic rocks and a little alluvium on its southeastern fringe around the town of Penzance. Its maritime climate notably lacks extremes of any kind. Annual and diurnal temperature ranges are slight