Book I. 



AGRICULTURE OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 



1097 



wooden mould In the shape of a flower pot, and afterwards sus- 

 pended from beams, rafters, or pegs, in an airy apartment, in a 

 net, whose meslies indent their surface like a pine apjile. Salt 

 is then rubbed over them, or thev are steeped in brine ; 

 weiRht, 5Ibs. The milk is conveyed from the field to the 

 dairies in what is called a tankard drawn by a horse or ass. 

 {Jig- 778.) 



779 



Sheep, a native breed known as the Berkshire poHed, or nott 

 {Jig. 779)j strongly marked, ;but in much less repute than for. 

 merly; it is now difficult to be met with pure; they arw 



considered as very hardy, and particularly adapted for the 

 low strong lands, and for folding. 



Horses of the common heavy "black race. Pearce calcu- 

 lated in 17!)1, that 12,000 horses were kept in Berkshire for 

 the purposes of agriculture, and that one- third of the number 

 might be saved by the use of improved implements ; most of 

 the horses are bought from the, Northamptonshire breeders ; 

 many, after being kept a year or two at work, are sold for 

 the London drays. 



Hiiga, the native Ibreed one of the best in Britain ; a cross 

 with the Chinese, now more common than the pure native 

 breed. Wherever there is a dairy, hogs are kept, but they are 

 not counted a profitable slock to'be fed with what would fatten 

 cattle or sheep. Carcase chiefly made -into bacon ; cured in 

 the usual way, and dried in rooms heated with wood or coal. 

 l/ovedcn has 'a bacon house, heated by a stove and flues. In 

 farm-houses, much is smoke-dried in the chininies with wood 

 fires, which is supjiosed to have the best flavor. 



Rabbits kept in warrens, in one or two places ; and one gen- 

 tleman rears tame rabbits of a pure wliite, the skins of which 

 sell high for trimmings. 



Pvultrt/. Near Oakingham, many are crammed for the 

 market, they are put up in a dark place, and crammed with 

 a paste made of barley-meal, mutton suet, and some treacle, 

 or coarse sugar, mixed with milk, and are found to be com- 

 pl.'tely ripe in a fortnight. If kept longer, the fever that 



is induced by this continued state of rei)letion, renders 

 them red and unsaleable, and frequently kills them. In 

 the eastern part of the county, many geese reared on the 

 commons. 



Pigeons in considerable numbers. 



Bees, not very common. Sir William East, of Uullplace, a 

 cele^jated apiarist. In the forest district, bees are most com- 

 mon. One gentleman removes his hives to a heath at the 

 flowering season. 



Deer kept in several parks ; 2500 fidlow, and 300 red deer, 

 in ^V'indsor Great Park. 

 12. Political Economy. 



Roads for the most part good, especially since a part has 

 been put under the care of M'Adam. Gravel, flint, or chalk, 

 abounds in most places. Canals and navigable rivers so inter- 

 spersed, that no part of the county is further than twelve miles 

 from water carriage. Cloth for sacking and hammocks, 

 manufactured at Abinedon and Maidenhead, also some sail 

 cloth, and rush, and twme matting. Cotton mills at Tanlow. 

 Paper, and formerly blankets and other woollens, at New- 

 bury. A parchment manufacture at Oakingham. At Read- 

 ing, a pin manufactory, and the weaving of galoon, satin, 

 ribbands, and other light fabrics ; a floor cloth manufactory ; 

 twine and rope making ; sail making, sacking, &c. 



The Berkshire Agricultural Society, esUblished in 1794. 



7006. GLOUCESTERSHIRE. A surface of nearly 800,000 acres, in three natural divisions; the 

 Cotswold hills, the vale of the Severn, and the Forest Lands. Great part of the county is under meadows, 

 pastures, and orchards ; and cheese and cider are its known agricultural productions. It is also a 

 manufacturing county, and its fine broad-clothsare celebrated, as well as its iron, tin-plates, and pins. There 

 is no very eminent gentleman agriculturist, nor any agricultural society in the county, but Dr. Tennant 

 farmed a small estate on the Chilterns. {Turner's Report, 1794. Rudge's Report, 1807. MarshaPs 

 Review, 1818. Smith's Geological Map, 1821.) 



1. Geographical State and Circumstances. 



C/im<i/c, cold and bleak on the Cotswold hills; mild in the 

 vale, which lies open to the south winds ; on the sand^ soils of 

 tlie forest district, .the harvest is sometimes cut a fortnight 

 earlier than in the vale. 



S(n7 of the Cotswokls is all calcareous loam or stonebrash ; 

 in the vale, a fine black loam, or fertile red loam, and in some 

 places a strong clay and peat earth ; the finest soil is generally 

 sandy loam, sand or i>eaty earth. 



Minerals. None in the Cotswolds, but iron and coal in the 

 Forest of Dean, both worked. Lead found in the limestone 

 rocks of the lower jiart of the vale ; not worked. Though 

 iron ore be abundant in the Forest of Dean, only a small (quan- 

 tity is raised, it being found more profitable to bring the richer 

 ore of Lancashire, which is burnt with the coke of the forest 

 coal for cast iron, and plates for tinning. Coal pits numerous, 

 and worked at a shallow depth, for want of proner machinery to 

 exhaust the water ; three sorts deliveretl, kitchen coal, smith's 

 coal, and lime co<U. (Uaystone and freestone found in various 

 parts of the forest ; paving stones, grindstones, yellow and 

 grey stone tiles raised in different parts of the Cotswolds ; 

 gypsum is raised for stuccoing, and sent to Bath from Han- 

 buiy ; it is also used as alal>aster for chimney pieces, &c. 



Water. Produce of the Severn is roach, dace, bleak, floun- 

 ders, eels, elvers, chub, carp, trout, and perch. The sea-fish 

 taken within the limits of the county, in the Severn, are 

 salmon, lampreys, lampems, chad, soles, shrimjK, cod, plaice, 

 conger -eel, poriJoise, and sturgeon. Salmon formerly caught 

 in great abundance, but now comparatively scarce. (Jreat 

 mischief done by the use of small meshed nets, which take the 

 samlets or fry. ... , . 



Ponds for mater made on the Cotswold hills, as already de- 

 cribed (41,'5G.), in the vale in the common manner. The 

 waters which rise through l)eds of blue clay, are often strongly 

 saline, as at Cheltenliam, &c. 



2. Property. 



Largest estate 8000Z. a year among the nobility, and 3000/. 

 among the gentry ; tenures chiefly freehold, some copyhold, 

 and about one-fortieth corjiorate or ecclesiastical. Estates un- 

 der the see of Gloucester, leased out on lives; those of the cor- 

 poration of the city, the same ; usual fine for renewal of a life 

 one year and a half of the improved annual value. 



3. Buildings. 



Many handsome seats; farm-houses and cottages on the 

 Cotswolds built of freestone, and covered with stone tiles ; 

 often as many on an estate of 100/. a year, as are required for 

 i\ farm of 50fj/. a year, under the correction of mcdem im- 

 provement ; bams, however, of a moderate si/x? ; wheat staikel 

 on stone smldles. Cottages, as in most.counties, neglected, and 

 uncomfoi tabic; some judicious remarks on the subject by 

 Ri;dac. 



4. Occupation. 



Farms diifer much in size ; few exceed 1000/. or fall short of 

 50/. a year. Some grazing farms in the vale of 500 acres, but 

 200 and 300 more common. Leases of three years most com- 

 mon, next of seven years, not many of fourteen, and those of 

 twenty-one on corporate property. 



5. Implements. 



A narrow-wheeled waggon in general use among farmers. 

 Various ploughs; a short -beamed one-wheel plough in use 

 on the Cotswolds ; in the vale, a clumsy swing plough. Lam- 

 bert's draining plough much in use with the improved draught 

 aiii)aratus, (fig. 780.) and in the old way. Various improved 

 ploughs and other implements, as well as threshing and win- 

 nowing machines introduced. A thistle drawer (fig. 254-) in 

 use for extracting the com thistle (Serratula arvensis) from 

 com fields ; cradle scythe used for cutting beans. 



6. Enclosing. 



The first enclosures during Queen .4nne's reign ; eleven dur- 

 ing the reign of Geo. II.; and upwards of seventy during the 

 reign of Geo. III. Hedg of white thorn, on which the 

 reporter observes medlars might be grafted, and raised in great 

 l>lenty. Black thorn (Prunus spiiiosa) hedges, he says, never 

 suffer from the blight ; a most erroneous idea. 



7. J ruble Land. 



.JOO.CKM) acres ; much nloughing on the Cotswolds lighten* 

 the staple of the weak soils : seven horses often used in the vale 

 teams ; ridges in the vale so high that a (lerson six feet high 

 may stand in the furrows, and not be able to see the crown of 

 the second riilge from hun ; to reduce them a small ridge often 

 begim lietween them. Fallowing practised on the clays, 

 then wheat and lieans, or oats. Rotation on the Cotswolds 

 1 turnips, 2 barley, 3 and 4 clover mown the first year. 

 5 wheat, 6 oats, tares, or peas; if oats, frequenUy laid 

 down with saintfoin. (m crumbly soils wheat is' sown and 

 plougheil in during rather wet weather, otherwise the seedling 

 plants are ai>t to be thrown out with the first frosts; the same 

 thinij atten(le<l to in Oxfordshire and various other counties ; 

 this is called seven-field husbandn-. Beans either drille<l or 

 dibbled ; a broad bean, the mazagiin, usetl when the land is in 

 good heart, and ticks when less so. The Burbage jwa, n 

 early grey variety, most in use. " Some lands have the pecu- 

 liar quality of raising siildon' feas, or such as boil freely ;" on 

 them the Charlton is grown, and sold for splitting : < lay lands 

 never have this propertv. "Tares common, and among these a 

 sort calletl dill, supposed by Marshal to be the ervuin liirsutum, 

 L., but erroneously termed anethum hy Rudge. Turnips on 

 the Cotswolds alwayt,l<road-cast, and sometimes after wheat or 

 tares, and then called stubble turniiMs; consumed I y sl.cej) in 

 hurdle folds ; sometimes given to horses, and found to induce 

 Vhcm to cat bam chaff with a letter appetite. Scir.e IT 



