286 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



irregular and intricate, being bounded on one side 

 'by the waving line of the Coisvvold hills, Ibllowing 

 the oolile up the valleys in all their windings ; and 

 being broken on the other by deposiies ol'calcareous 

 gravel. 



The soil, on this Ibrmalion, which is formed of 

 •clay with a mixture of vegetable mailer in a de- 

 caying state, is very various, and is more or less 

 •productive according to the quantity of dead and 

 •decaying vegetable matter it contains. In some 

 places, where it has been long pastured, and where 

 a considerable portion of vegetable matter is mixed 

 with it, it produces the richest pasture ; but on 

 other parts, it is very tenacious, poor, cold and 

 sterile ; and better adapted for pasture to young 

 stock than lor dairy cows or tillage. 



The ^ whole of this district being inclosed with 

 hedges, having a great quantity of hedge-row 

 titnberin them, it has the appearance of being 

 thickly wooded, as, indeed, it is in many places. 

 The climate is not so early as might be expected, 

 owing, we believe, to its clayey subsoil. Har- 

 vest is about as early on the Cotswold hills as in 

 the vale, although they are at least six hundred 

 ileet above it. Dairy- farming is the universal 

 pursuit in the vale. 



these, having a subsoil of calcareous gravel, and 

 being naturally dry, their herbage is of a quality 

 superior to that of the rest o/' the larm, and they 

 are thickly covered with liie finest and most 

 nutritive grasses. 



The larm buildings are situated at the north- 

 west side of the larm. These are a good dwelling- 

 house, a dairy-house, feeding stallslbr twenty-five 

 beasls, two shades, several courts, stables, and a 

 barn two hundred liiet long and thirty wide, built 

 about 600 years ago, and now used as a store for 

 the best hay. 



Management of fields. 



Description of the farm. 



The farm of Frocester Court contains between 

 four hundred and five hundred acres, about lour 

 hundred of which are in old pasture. It lies in the 

 vale of Berkeley, at the foot of the Cotswold hills, 

 about eleven miles Irom the city of Gloucester, 

 eight from the town of Berkeley, and five liom the 

 river Severn. Its general aspect is towards the 

 north, having Frocester hill, part of the Cotswold 

 range, on the south of it, from the edge of which 

 it roaches about two miles ti-om the river below. 

 It is all inclosed with hedges and ditches. The 

 hedges are for the most part broad, and composed 

 of black and white thorn, hazel. &c. These 

 hedges are very old, and probably have been 

 formed by being left, when the ground was first 

 cleared Irom its natural wood, with which the 

 whole of this vale seems once to have been co- 

 vered. 



The soil is of two kinds. The one of these, on 

 the sand Ibrmation, which lies above the blue lias 

 clay, is of a light sandy nature, of a brownish 

 colour, containing a considerable portion of vege- 

 table matier.iand naturally producing ferns, and 

 good, sweet herbage. Its distance from the (iirm 

 buildings, and its elevation being upwards of three 

 hundred feet above them induce the larmer to keep 

 it in constant pasture for sheep and young beasts. 

 The second kind of soil, which is upon the blue 

 Jias clay, is of various depths, and contains an 

 .admixture of vegetable mould and clay, thickly 

 interwoven with fibre in a decaying state, decreas- 

 Jng in quantity as the depth of the soil decreases. 

 The wholeofthis soil, where it is deep, appears to 

 be full of vegetable matter, and where it is dry, or 

 on a bf'd of calcareous irravel, it produces a most 

 abundant herbage of the richest quality, which 

 varies in its nature and richness wiih the nature 

 and de[)ih ofihe soil. A great portion of decaying 

 vegetable mailer in ihe soil would therefore seem 

 essential to the produciion of rich pasture. The 

 fields, which arc nearest to the homestead, have 

 been [)astured liom time immemorial. Some of 



The principal object of the dairy-farmer in the 

 management of his fields, is the production oi'good 

 pasture and hay lor dairy-cows, and lor raising 

 as many young cows as will be required to fill up 

 the place of those, which either from age or casual- 

 ties lail in being productive milkers. 



It is generally thought that grass-land should be 

 pastured and mown alternately ; and when the 

 ground is never manured, this would seem to be 

 the best way of managing it, unless, as is the case 

 in most liirms, there are certain grounds, which, 

 when pastured by cows, produce not only much the 

 greatest quantity of milk per cow, but also much 

 the greatest quantity of cheese per gallon : these 

 grounds the intelligent farmer will select for 

 pasture to his cows in preference to all the others. 

 Hence, on most dairy-liirms, there are grounds 

 that are always pastured, being those that are 

 most productive of cheese, and, ibr the most part, 

 nearest to the homestead. Of course there are, 

 on such farms, other grounds, which are mown 

 every year. With respect to these we would 

 remark, that as, though lreque;itly manured, they 

 are sometimes apt to be overrun with yellow-rattle, 

 a biennial weed, they should be pastured for at 

 least twoyears in succession, and the ground should 

 be skimmed over with the scythe, when the weed 

 is coming into flower. This would completely 

 extirpate it. 



The poorest fields of this farm are seldom or 

 never allowed to be pastured in the spring, as it 

 throws them lar back at harvest-time. Some of 

 the fields that are manured, are generally kept for 

 pasture Ibr the sheep in the spring, upon which 

 they are folded, and get a fresh portion of the field 

 every day, by which means the grass is eaten up 

 clean. When there is a scarcity of keep, this is 

 sometimes continued till the middle of April or 

 beginning of May, when the ground is cleaned, and 

 shut up lor hay. 



Drainins;. — The whole of this farm has been 

 drained. The draining plough has been resorted 

 to, where the sub-soil of clay is near the surface ; 

 and, in pasture land, where the plough reaches the 

 clay, this mode is both the cheapest and the most 

 efiieciual. Tuif-draining answers well, where the 

 turf is strong enough to bear ramming; and where 

 it is not, stone or draining tiles answer the best, 

 but they are both more expensive than turl-drain- 

 ing. 



Manure. — From the small quantity of arable 

 land on this larm, there is very little straw raised 

 and none of it can be spared Ibr litter to (he cows, 

 when loddered in the several courts. The dung, 

 therefore, thai is collected in the court-yards is of 

 the richest dcycriplion, the whole of it having pass- 



