AGRICULTURE 



of the farmer being to get a corn crop as often as the season and the condition 

 of the soil will allow. Although bare fallows are still found necessary if the 

 seasons are unfavourable, they are much less frequent than formerly, owing 

 to the fact that the greater part of the more intractable arable land has 

 now been laid down to permanent grass. Root crops are almost invariably 

 drawn off to be consumed by cattle in yards and sheds, and it is quite 

 exceptional to see sheep feeding off roots on arable land in autumn or winter. 

 When the land is foul a bastard fallow is given by sowing vetches on a 

 wheat stubble directly after harvest. The vetches must be early sown so 

 that they may be fed off on the land in time for it to be ploughed for the 

 succeeding wheat or bean crop before the busy days of harvest. For a bare 

 summer fallow the land is first ploughed in early spring and left until the 

 spring planting is finished. Then, when it has lain long enough to get 

 fairly dry, it is ploughed back again, and afterwards scarified as often as 

 necessary and the season permits. The clods receive a thorough baking from 

 the sun, and the greater part of the couch grass is thus killed. 



Where milk-selling is practised it is the aim of the farmer to keep up 

 the supply by having his cows downcalving all the year round, but more par- 

 ticularly in the winter months when milk is dear, and when, from the effect 

 of climate and the necessity of foddering the cows on dry food, the quantity 

 produced is less than when they are grazing the pastures in spring and 

 summer. The heifer calves are usually retained in order to maintain the 

 dairy stock, and the bull calves are sold to the hill farmers to be weaned and 

 reared as steers. As in the Thames Valley, there are many famous herds of 

 Shorthorn dairy cattle in this district, this breed largely predominating over 

 others. The Longhorns and Old Gloucesters mentioned by Rudge are practi- 

 cally extinct. The grass land of the vale is not generally speaking healthy 

 for sheep, as it induces fluke or liver rot, and trouble is experienced 

 with foot rot. Many farmers, however, in the neighbourhood of Gloucester 

 buy a few ewes of the Radnor breed in autumn, run them on the sounder 

 grass fields with a Hampshire or Shropshire Down ram, and sell them out 

 the following summer with their lambs as soon as they can be got fit for the 

 butcher. 



Although there is seldom any farmyard manure available for the grass- 

 land, the application of 5 to 7 cwt. of basic slag to the acre on fields upon 

 the Lias has produced a most beneficial effect, increasing the growth of white 

 clover and the finer grasses to an extent that, in the absence of proof, would 

 not readily be believed. 



The production of cider and perry is a considerable industry in the vale of 

 Gloucester ; the better qualities being obtained from orchards on the Red Marls 

 and Sandstone soils. Speaking generally, orchards have not been as well 

 managed as might have been the case, and have not been regularly replenished 

 with young trees to take the place of those that have become unserviceable. 

 Practical instruction in fruit culture, including the management of young 

 and old orchards, and lectures on cider-making, followed by practical demon- 

 strations and advice during the season at the various mills in the district, are 

 now given by experts under the supervision of the County Council, and have 

 led to increased attention being attracted to the industry with good results, 

 the orchards being better tended, and a more methodical system of 



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