1098 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part IV. 



raised ; teasles a good deal cultivated formerly, now not 100 

 acres of them in the whole coimty. 



8. Grass. 



Very rich meadows on the Severn, overflown during winter 

 and spring, on which the fanners! depend for a crop. When 

 the salt water overflows, the meadows are termed marshes, and 

 grazed by horses and cattle that require rest and spring physic. 

 In general meadows are mown and pastiued alternately, ex- 

 cepting near Gloucester, where abundance of manure is ob- 

 tamed. Herbage, plants, cuid rye grass sown on the Cotswolds, 



but little in the vale ; saintfoin much cultivated on the stone- 

 brash soils. Grass lands fed in general from May to the end of 

 September, and then the cattle, unfinished, are taken in and 

 completed with hay, oil-cake, and other artificial food, but 

 seldom with roots. The orchis mascula so common in the 

 meadows, that it has been gathered, Rudge informs us, and 

 made into sago. (5526.) 



9. Gardens and Orchards. 



Most of the' cottages, such as they are, have gardens, and 

 almost every farm its orchard; but largeones, so as to admit of 



making cider for sale, are found only on the sides of the hills and 

 in the vale and forest district. The stocks are planted in the 

 orchard when six or seven feet high, ten or twelve yards asunder 

 on pasture, and sixteen or seventeen on arable lands. A year 

 after planting, they are grafted. Sometimes fruit trees are 

 planted in the hedge rows ; hedges are often composed of apple 

 seedlings, raised from the kernels in the cider mast ; and here 

 and there the farmer often leaves a stem to rise above the 

 general height of the hedge, and grafts it; frequently also 

 \rildings are iillowed here and there to rise into trees, and their 

 fruit is used with that from grafted trees, in crushing for cider. 

 Grjrfts are inserted in the cleft manner, at seven feet from 

 the ground, two in each stock : if both succeed, one is removed 

 the following spring, and the stock sloped to the remaining 

 graft, to prevent the lodging of water, and clayed (afresh, to 

 facilitate the growth of bark over the wound. After grafting, 

 * braids," that is, inverted wicker baskets, rising about two 

 feet high, are fitted to the stock, which serve at once to guard 

 the grafts, and direct their shoots to a proper form. The stock 

 is next protected from cattle or the plough harness, by four 

 posts placed round it, with six tier of rails ; by three posts and 

 Bix tier of rails ; by two broad posts and railsi; by a bundle of 

 thorn branches ; by planting a thorn or briar along with the 

 stock ; or by twisting a shoot of the creeping rose {Rosa arvensis) 

 round the stock. The mode of plantingia cre)ing rose with the 

 stock, and twisting it round the stem, is said to be found the 

 cheapest and best ; but it must evidently impoverish the soil. 

 Pruning is not attended to on young grafted trees, or any 

 others as it ought to be, nor the removal of moss and misletoe. 

 Grafting the branches of old trees often practised with great suc- 

 tiess ; a young stock grafted will probably not produce a bushel of 

 apples in twenty years, but a branch grafted bears the second 

 year. Dr. Cheston, of Gloucester, practises root grafting, but 

 which is quite unsuitable for field orchards. Grafted trees bear 

 little till twenty years of age; their produce increases till 

 fifty years, and is then ten or fifteen bushels ; an apple will 

 bear 100 or more years from this period, and often much 

 longer. A pear tree at Minsterworth 300 years old at least. 



Cider-making. Best orchardists shake off' the fruit, and never 

 beat the tree, which destroys the blossom buds ; limb by limb 

 is shaken by a person in the tree, and those which adhere 

 allowed to remain some time longer to ripen : the horse-mill 

 used by large, and the hand-mill by small farmers; the cylin- 

 ders of the hand-mill of wood, and fluted ; sometimes there 

 are two pair of cylinders, one finer fluted under the first pair, 

 and in other cases the cylinders are set wide|the first time the 

 apples are passed through, and closer the second ; the other 

 processes as usual. Of the various apples grown, the white- 

 styre of the Forest district makes the strongest and richest 

 cider ; it is often valued equally with foreign wine, and sold at 

 extravagant prices. Ciders from the Hagloe crab, golden pip- 

 pin, and Longney russet, are next in esteem- The white- 

 must, wood-cock, and half a dozen others, are fine old fruits, 

 but now going off". 



Perry from the squash pear is esteemed the best ; and next 

 from the Huifcap and sack. 



Table fntUs, where farmers live near canals, pay much better 

 than those of the cider kind ; especially those of the keeping 

 varieties, such as the golden and Moreland pippin, Longney 

 russet, &c. 

 10. Woods and Plantations. 



Most extensive on the Cotswolds ; the sorts there beech and 

 ash ; timber sold to dealers, who cpnvert it on the spot to 

 scantling for gun-stocks, saddle-trees, bedsteads, chairs, and 

 other cabinet work, and staves for sugar hogsheads. Some fine 

 old specimens of chestnut, elm, oak, and ash in the vale. 

 Tortworth chestnut, 500 years old, in the time of King John. 

 In the Forest of Dean a considerable quantity of good timber 

 belonging to government, and nearly 3000 acres lately planted 

 with acorns. The method of planting is, first, to mark out the 

 ground ; then taking off about a foot square of turf, to set two 

 or three acorns with a setting-pin ; afterwards to invert the 

 turf upon them, and, by way of raising a fence against hares 

 and rabbits, to plant two or three strong white thorn sets 

 round. They are seldom thinned till they have attained the 



size of hop-poles, and then are left at twelve feet distance from 

 each other, with the view of again thinning them, by taking 

 out every other one, when they are thirty years old, and have 

 attained the size of five or six inches diameter. By growing 

 thick, no side-shoots are thrown out, which supersedes the ne- 

 cessity of pruning; the young trees which are drawn at the 

 first thinning, are transplanted, and, as it is thought, grow 

 equally well with those that have not been removed, and pro- 

 duce timber as full at the heart, compact, strong, and durable, 

 as " that which is raised immediately from the acorn." The 

 " whitten," or small leaved lime (Tilia cordata, L.), is found in 

 several coppices on the Welsh side of the Severn ; and, what is 

 singular, ropes for halters, plough traces, cider presses, draw 

 wells, and fishery boats, &c. are made from it as in Russia. 

 These ropes are found to contract and expand less from moisture 

 ' drought than hempen ropes. Theliark is stripped off alraut 



Midsummer, dried like hay in the sun, and manufactured on 



ilsewhere. Many 

 Arlingham ; the fruit shipped to distant places, and the tim- 



the spot or elsewhere. 



walnut trees in the parish of 



ber sent to Birmingham for gun stocks. 



Artificial plantations, to a great extent, made round gentle- 

 men's" seats on the Cotswold hills. The osier in beds on the 

 Severn. 



11. Improvements. 



On the lands adjoining the Severn inundations were fre- 

 quent; but a commission of sewers have erected banks and 

 flood-gates, which protect upwards of 12,000 acres. At other 

 places private banks or flood-gates on the rivers or banked 

 ditches are placed, and operate by the alternate influence of 

 the tides and accumulated inland waters. 



Draining much practised; both in the turf, stone, wood, 

 straw, and with Lumbert's plough ; the plough drawn by 

 twelve horses, or worked by a long lever and axle (2524.), by 

 which one horse gains the power of thirty. Before the mole 

 draining-plough is used, it is a good practice to turn off the 

 sward with the common plough ; then to make the incision for 

 the drain in the centre of this ; the sward being afterwards 

 turned back to its place, completely covers the aperture, and 

 protects it from the effects of a subsequent Cay season. The 

 long-continued drought of the summer of 1806 opened many 

 drains which were cut by Lumbert's plough, so much that the 

 bottom was clearly seen, while many that have been done by 

 hand have formed still wider chasms, and will probably not 

 answer the purpose intended at all. In both instances there is 

 reason to think, that this would not have happened if the ope- 

 ration had been performed in autumn, ana the surface turf 

 first turned back, as recommended. 



The accumulated mater of underground drains raised from low 

 meadows in one peurish by a wheel driven by the water of sur- 

 face ditches. 



Paring and burning practised on the Cotswolds; weeding 

 com penejral. 



Irrigation chiefly pursued in the valleys of the Cotswolds, ad- 

 joining rivulets, and especially the Coin and Chum. Carried to 

 greatest perfection in the parish of South Cemey ; first began 

 here under the Rev. W. Wright, who wrote several tracts on the 

 subject. When the first great rains in November bring the 

 waters down in a muddy state, it is let into the meadows. In 

 December and January the land is kept sheltered by the waters 

 from the severity of frosty nights; but every ten davs, or 

 thereabouts, the water is let entirely off, to give air and pre- 

 vent the roots from rotting. In February great care is re- 

 quired. If the water now remains long on the meadows, a 

 white scum will generate, which if found to be very injurious 

 to the grass. On the other hand, if it be taken off, and the 

 land exposed to a severe frosty night, without being previously 

 dried for a whole day, much of the tender grass will be cut off. 

 Towards the middle of this month less water is used than be- 

 fore, keeping the land rather wet than watered. At the be- 

 ginning of March, there is generally in such meadows plenty of 

 pasturage for all kinds of stock ; the water, however, should 

 be taken off nearly a week before cattle are tumed on, and a 

 little hay at night during the first week is very proper. It is 

 the custom with some to spring-feed with ewes and Iambs 

 folded, with a little hay. The meadows, however, must be en- 



