A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



manufacture being adopted. The National Fruit and Cider Institute at Long 

 Ashton near Bristol is also carrying out important investigations into the 

 most suitable varieties and the most profitable methods of production, besides 

 being engaged in chemical research in relation to the subject. 



In the neighbourhood of Winchcombe and the Vale of Evesham the 

 cultivation of fruit and manufacture of jam have undergone considerable 

 extension, and a large and important industry has been established. 



In the vicinity of the larger towns such as Cheltenham, Gloucester, 

 Bristol, and Bath, market-gardening is largely practised. The soil of the 

 district immediately adjoining Cheltenham is particularly suitable to this 

 description of husbandry, the Lias Clay being here overlaid by a bed of warm 

 sandy loam of a very fertile nature. This business has become much less 

 profitable than formerly now that communication with the Channel Islands 

 and the Continent is frequent and rapid. The earliest vegetables and fruit, 

 which command the highest prices, are produced in their more genial climate, 

 and the English grower is consequently under a great disadvantage in the 

 lower prices that prevail when his crops are ready for market. 



4. That part of the county lying beyond the Severn contains about 

 73,000 acres. The Forest of Dean itself, which covers about 24,000 acres, 

 presents few features of agricultural interest. Adjoining it on the north the 

 soil is a light loam, for the greater part on the Old Red Sandstone, easy of 

 cultivation, but deficient in lime, and of no great fertility. It is well adapted 

 for barley and turnip husbandry, and the rearing of cattle and sheep. This 

 district is called The Ryelands, and gave its name to a breed of fine-woolled 

 sheep that is now very seldom met with as a pure breed, the sheep now 

 found in the locality being almost entirely derived from the Clun Forest or 

 Radnor breed either pure or crossed with the Shropshire Down. 



On the arable land the four or five course system of cropping, as prac- 

 tised on the Cotswold Hills, is followed, and where the land is well farmed 

 good crops are produced. The Old Red Sandstone and Carboniferous Lime- 

 stone are also met with south of the forest, and a considerable area near the 

 Severn is upon the New Red Sandstone, Red Marl, and the Lias. Here the 

 land is very similar to that of the other part of the vale of Gloucester from 

 which it is separated by the river. The farms are largely composed of 

 pasture, and dairying and cattle-grazing prevail. The fine breed of Hereford 

 cattle is met with in this district, and probably in its native home and the 

 immediate neighbourhood is surpassed by no other variety for summer grazing. 



Land is for the far greater part held upon yearly tenancies throughout 

 the county. Upon the Cotswolds and arable farms of the Thames Valley 

 they generally commence and terminate at Michaelmas, and where per- 

 manent pasture predominates at Lady Day. 



Except in the neighbourhood of the towns, where manure may be 

 easily brought on to the farm in return for produce sold, it is not cus- 

 tomary for a tenant to sell hay and straw, but to consume them on the 

 holding. An outgoing tenant is paid for the whole of the expense of his 

 last year's root crop, for all work done for the benefit of his successor, and 

 for the hay and straw left on the premises at consuming price. He is 

 also entitled to be paid for the labour he has expended on the manure 

 left, and a practice is growing up of allowing compensation for what is 



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