AGRICULTURE 



FOR many centuries the county of Gloucester has held a prominent place 

 in the agriculture of the kingdom, originally by reason of the 

 native breed of sheep which takes its name from the Cotswold 

 Hills. The wool of this variety was once highly valued for the 

 production of the fine fabrics that were formerly in great demand, not only 

 in this country, but on the continent of Europe, and numerous large flocks 

 were maintained in the county, which was for a long period the centre of 

 the English wool trade. 



Until the closing years of the eighteenth century the greater part of 

 the arable land was cultivated on the unfenced, open-field system, it 

 being the exception for agricultural holdings to be divided into fields by 

 fences, or held, as it was then termed, ' in severally. ' There were generally 

 two or three large arable fields in each parish divided into acre or half-acre strips 

 among the tenants. Owing to the absence of fences the whole of each field 

 was of necessity in the same crop, and in the Vale the usual course was to 

 plant two successive corn crops followed by a fallow, while on the lighter 

 land of the hills a fallow followed each crop of corn. Adjoining the village 

 were crofts or pastures attached to each holding of arable land, which were 

 mown for hay, or a meadow, of which every tenant might mow a portion, 

 and in some cases a sheep or cow common, where the stock might graze 

 at such times as there was no other pasturage available, which would be 

 during the late summer and autumn. Turnips not having been introduced, 

 the fallow field was sometimes sown with rye-grass to be fed, but even if left 

 uncropped there was a quantity of couch-grass and weeds which was fed off 

 until June or July, when the land was ploughed for wheat. After harvest the 

 stubbles were thrown open, as well as the grazing common, and as the season 

 advanced the live stock was brought home, and, when the lattermath of the 

 pasture was gone, was as far as possible carried through the winter on hay. 

 This system was terribly wasteful. The divisions, or baulks, in the arable fields 

 occupied a considerable area of surface and bore no crop, while the absence 

 of turnips, and consequent scarcity of winter food, made it impossible to 

 carry the whole of the live stock through the winter. It was therefore 

 necessary either to sell, or put out to agistment, every autumn, animals that 

 should have been maintained on the holding. Beyond this the cultivation of the 

 narrow detached strips entailed great waste of time, and these small holdings 

 required a far larger strength in men, oxen, or horses, than would have been the 

 case if they had formed part of a larger farm divided into fields and fenced. 

 While each occupier's land lay in scattered strips all over the parish, any 

 amelioration of the soil by drainage was impracticable, and it was hopeless to 

 attempt any improvement in live stock so long as the sheep were sent out in a 



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