A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



Although there are several excellent herds of Shorthorns kept on such 

 farms as are suitable, cattle breeding is not largely practised on the hills on 

 account of the small proportion of grass land, except from the few cows 

 kept to supply milk to the farmer's house and to his neighbours. Calves are, 

 however, on most farms bought from dairymen in the vale or from the 

 neighbouring county of Wilts, and after being weaned are reared and gene- 

 rally sold as stores at about two years old. Not many pigs are kept, the 

 breed of such as there are being usually a Berkshire cross. 



2. The portion of the Thames Valley that is situated within the county 

 of Gloucester contains about 60,000 acres, much of the soil being 

 agriculturally more important than that of the Cotswold Hills. It is, 

 however, very variable, the greater part being upon the Forest Marble and 

 Bradford Clay, partly overlaid by the Cornbrash. When the Forest Marble is 

 fully exposed the soil is of a particularly obstinate nature, cold and reten- 

 tive of moisture, at the same time difficult to drain on account of the 

 layers of hard thin rock lying near the surface. The Thames meadows 

 and adjoining arable land, extending from South Cerney to Lechlade, through 

 Down Ampney and Kempsford, are on the Oxford Clay, for the most part 

 covered with oolitic or calcareous gravel. 



The farms in this division are of less area than upon the Cotswolds, and, as 

 is naturally the case where the soil is of a more fertile nature, small holdings of 

 50 to 150 acres are found. Where, however, the Cornbrash, Forest Marble, 

 and the moory gravels predominate, the holdings are larger. The course of 

 husbandry is, generally speaking, very similar to that which is customary on 

 the Cotswolds, with certain modifications necessitated by the variations of the 

 soil. Some of the heavier tenacious arable land will not carry sheep in winter, 

 and, instead of turnips or swedes to be fed off on the land, vetches are grown 

 as fallow crops to be fed in summer ; or swedes and mangold, to be drawn 

 off and consumed in the cattle yards, are substituted, and beans occasionally 

 precede wheat. It may, however, be said that for the most part agricultural 

 operations on the arable land are very much the same as those that have 

 already been described, and it is unnecessary to enumerate them in detail. 

 Probably one-third to one-half of this district is now in permanent pasture, 

 much of the more intractable arable land having been laid down to grass 

 since 1880. On the border of the county of Wilts and in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of the Thames dairy farms predominate. These were formerly 

 devoted to the production of cheese, and although this industry still exists 

 to a small extent, the greater number of farmers have now become milk- 

 sellers, and the produce of their cows is sent away twice a day by rail to 

 London and other large centres of population. Although the wholesale price 

 is low, and the cost of carriage is high in proportion to the value of the 

 commodity, this method of dealing with their milk finds great favour with 

 those whose occupations lie within reasonable distance of the railway, but it is 

 very doubtful if as much money is realized by this practice as if it were converted 

 into cheese, as was at one time customary. Made into cheese, milk has 

 been worth recently nearly yd. a gallon, and, although the labour of the dairy 

 is a considerable tax at certain times of the year on the female members of his 

 family, the cheese-maker has in the whey a useful food for pigs, which should 

 be a source of profit to the farmer, and a benefit to the farm on which they 



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