AGRICULTURE 



high may stand in some of the furrows and not be able to see the top of the second ridge 

 from him). Where an inclosure has left the farmer at liberty to follow his own good sense 

 and judgment, he reduces the higher ridges, fills the furrows, and brings the surface nearer 

 to a level ; the superfluous water is collected from smaller drains and grips in large receiving 

 sewers, and the deep furrows, which from redundancy of moisture carried little else but 

 couch and aquatic plants, are brought back to an equal degree of fertility with the rest of 

 the field. The farmer is aware of the evil, but his hands are tied up from improvement 

 while the lands are entangled with each other, and subdivided among so many proprietors of 

 different tempers and various degrees of industry. 



Inclosure Acts, dealing with the open and common fields in the county, 

 undoubtedly resulted in a greatly increased production of corn and meat, both 

 on the hills and in the Vale, and enabled the cultivators of the soil to adopt a 

 rational system or course of cropping, which is the foundation of the science 

 and practice of agriculture. In the vale, drainage operations became possible, 

 and were largely carried out, not only increasing the capacity of the soil for 

 bearing crops, but having a most important effect on the health of the popu- 

 lation, as well as of the live stock of every description. As underdrainage 

 carried away the water, and made thorough cultivation of the heavy arable 

 land possible, the high ridges were gradually got rid of, and the wide water 

 trenches removed. In fact, it was now for the first time possible to get 

 the water out of the land, instead of having to plough the land out of 

 the water. Much of the earlier draining was, however, not so efficient as it 

 would have been if the drains had been laid less deeply, and if pipes of larger 

 size had been employed. In many cases, in heavy land, drains were cut 

 6 ft. deep if a fall could be got, and the subsidiary drains were often laid with 

 pipes I in. in diameter. It is, however, scarcely possible at this date to 

 appreciate the improvement of the heavy lands in the Vale brought about by 

 drainage, as it is to realize their condition in the former state. 



Under the old conditions agricultural operations must have been ex- 

 tremely tedious. Wheat was cut with the sickle, or fagging hook, and 

 barley and oats mown with the scythe, and much of the corn must have been 

 put together in bad condition. All the hay was also, of course, mown, 

 turned, and raked into swaths by hand. Ploughs were heavy and cumbrous, 

 and it is difficult to see how a tilth was obtained in the absence of the various 

 drags and cultivators of the present day. Such drills as were in use were 

 clumsy implements, covering little ground, and all the hoeing was done by 

 manual labour. In winter the corn was threshed with the flail in the large 

 barns, many of which still exist, and winnowing must have been very 

 imperfectly performed with the means at command. 



Now that the work of the farm is so largely carried on by machinery 

 and horses, it is difficult to imagine how, under the old system, the various 

 operations can have been completed in their season. Even with the help of 

 string-binding reapers, grass-cutters, swath-turners, horse-rakes, American 

 cultivators and pair-horse drills, and with the stimulating artificial fertilizers 

 now available, it is not always possible to sow the seed and harvest the crop 

 without suffering delay and loss from unseasonable weather. 



The very comprehensive Report to the Board of Agriculture by Rudge, 



published in 1805, which has already been referred to, was followed by 



Bravender's Essay on The Agriculture of Gloucestershire, which gained the prize 



of the Royal Agricultural Society in 1850. These records afford an excellent 



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