AGRICULTURE 



the work cheaply and well. The Cotswold farmer is an economical manager, 

 and is careful to place a large proportion of his hay-ricks in convenient posi- 

 tions in his root fields, so as to save labour in carrying dry food to his sheep 

 in the following autumn and winter. As a rule hay is well made in Glouces- 

 tershire, although agriculturists from other districts observe that owing to the 

 practice of building such low ricks an unnecessarily large portion of the 

 contents must consist of outsides, top and bottom. The lattermath is fed 

 with sheep or young cattle, the latter doing better upon seeds than on 

 old pasture. It is grazed until ploughed for wheat, which in the four- 

 course system would be in the same year as it has borne the hay crop, or in 

 the more customary five-course system a twelvemonth later. Winter vetches 

 are drilled on a wheat stubble that has been manured, ploughed, rolled, and 

 harrowed down to a seed-bed immediately after harvest, at the rate of 

 4 bushels to the acre. They should be ready to feed in the following May, 

 but in recent years the large flocks of wood-pigeons so prevalent in the 

 country have done great damage to vetches as well as clover in the winter. 

 Spring vetches sown in March should be ready to feed in July. Peas are 

 usually drilled in early spring on a stubble that has been broken up in 

 autumn. The seed-bed must be got into a good tilth, and drilling should 

 take place when the land is friable. The harrows follow the drill and cover 

 the seed, and as soon as the plant is visible a second harrowing is given. 

 When about three inches high the crop should be again harrowed and rolled. 



On hill farms the proportion of meadow is usually small and is very 

 frequently mown every year, being grazed after the crop has been carried 

 and until May in the succeeding year, when it is again laid up for hay. 



From this brief account of husbandry operations on the Cotswold Hills 

 it will be seen that the object in view is to consolidate the arable land by 

 treading, and to manure and stimulate it to bear corn crops by the consumption 

 of the root crop by sheep having rations of hay and corn or cake. The 

 soil is healthy for sheep, and they are generally well managed. Formerly 

 the Cotswold breed predominated, but at the present time there are few 

 working flocks that have not been crossed to some extent with the Down, 

 and most now approximate to the Oxford Down type. The lambing pen is 

 generally placed in a turnip field, and constructed of thatched hurdles divided 

 into convenient pens well littered with straw, which is considered more 

 healthy for both ewes and lambs than a permanent lambing pen at the home- 

 stead. After lambing and when the young lambs are well on their legs, the 

 ewes run out daily on the turnips, or have a fold of kale and return to the 

 shelter of the pen at night. If the land is very wet they are shifted to a 

 dry pasture or seed field, and provided with some rough temporary shelter. 

 In due course a water meadow, Italian ryegrass, or an early field of seeds 

 provides food for both lambs and ewes, some roots being thrown to them 

 daily. During summer they are run thinly on seeds until the lambs are 

 weaned in July, when they are put on lattermath sainfoin or clover, the ewes 

 being given a bare bite on pasture or seeds in order to dry up their milk. 

 In September rape or early turnips provide food for the lambs, the wethers 

 being pushed with cake for the butcher, and the ewe lambs kept in thriving 

 condition in order to take their place in the breeding flock the succeeding 

 year. 



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