Gloucester-, ever, is short, seldom more than ten years. 
shire. 
Rye-grass. 
Cattle, 
Sheep. 
Cheese, 
324 
The only 
other artificial grass for which this county is remark- 
able is Peacey’s rye grass, which was first selected from 
the finest meadows in the vallies of the Coteswolds, and 
is now well known in almost every part of the king- 
dom. The management of the stall is no where better 
attended to than in Gloucestershire. The cattle usually 
fed are of the Herefordshire breed ; they are worked till 
they are 6 or 7 years old: when fat they are sent either 
to Smithfield or Bristol market. Great attention is also 
paid to the fattening of calves. The principal breed of 
sheep in the county is that of the Coteswold, large 
and coarse in the wool; at three years old weighing 
from 30 to 45 Ibs. per quarter, and affording a fleece 
of 9 or 10 Ibs. The new Leicester and the south Down 
are also kept in many parts, and the Ryeland in some 
parts of the forest district. The real forest sheep are 
nearly extinct ; these are very small, finely formed, and 
with fine wool. There is no peculiar breed of horses in 
this county. The old Gloucestershire breed of swine 
are now seldom kept. 
We now come to the two most important objects of 
Gloucestershire husbandry, its cheese and cider. Cheese 
is made both in the vale of Gloucester and in the vale 
of Berkley ; or, as they are sometimes termed, the up- 
per and lower vales: but the management of the two 
vales differ in one most material article, the quality of 
the milk. In the lower vale, the milk is run neat from 
the cow; in the upper vale, the practice is to set the 
evening’s milk for cream in the morning, and to skim 
it, and then to add it to the new milk of the morning’s 
meal. The cheese made from this mixture is termed 
two meal cheese ; that from the neat milk, milk cheese, 
or best making. There are other differences in the 
practices of the two vales. In the vale of Gloucester, 
rye-grass is the predominant and favourite grass; in 
the vale of Berkley, the dog’s-tail, with a mixture of 
rye-grass, the poag, and white clover. The Glouces- 
tershire breed of cattle, a variety of the middle horned 
species, still predominate in both vales for the purposes 
of the dairy; though in the higher vale, long-horned 
cows, from the improved stock of Bakewell, are often 
kept ; few dairies, however, in either vales, are with- 
out admixture. As soon as a “ pack” or stock of 
cows is formed, the first consideration is to mark out 
those inclosures, the herbage of which is most favour- 
able to the production of good milk ; among the plants 
which are useless or injurious, are white honeysuckle, 
crowfoot, and garlic. About the first of May, the pas- 
tures are ready to receive the cows, and soon after« 
wards cheese-making commences: great care is taken 
in the selection or preparation of the rennet, and most 
minute and  giwige 32 attention is paid to the tempera- 
ture at which the coagulation takes place most kindly 
and equally. Previous to adding the rennet, the co- 
louring is put in. In some places, the curd is scalded; 
where this is not done, a handful of salt is commonly 
thrown on the curd, immediately after the whey has 
been taken from it. The next operation consists in 
crumbling the curd, and pressing it fine in the vat, 
which is done with great nicety, being turned and salt- 
ed repeatedly. If the cheese is small, this part of the 
process is continued only three days. The cheese is 
then removed to the shelf, and turned every day for a 
fortnight ; then every other day for a fortnight more. 
At the end of this time, it is fit for the cheese loft: 
here it is turned twice a week, for three weeks; then 
the coat is scraped and coloured on the outside, or 
painted with carnation-red, mixed with water, and rub- 
bed on with flannel. About Michaelmas, the cheese- 
GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 
factor examines the cheeses by walking over and tread- 6! on 
ing upon each of them ; those which yield to the tread 
are said to be heaved, and are unfit for the London mar- 
ket. The cheese of the hundred of Berkley is the 
most celebrated of all the Gloucestershire cheese ; what 
in the kingdom at large is termed Gloucester cheese, 
particularly double Gloucester, is in Gloucestershire - 
called double Berkley, not more on account of the su-~ 
perior quality of the cheese of this district, than be~ 
cause the principal of the thick cheese of Glouces- 
tershire is made within this hundred. It is calculated 
that a cheese of 11lbs. requires 15 gallons of milk, or 
one gallon and one-third to one pound of two meal 
cheese. The year’s produce of a cow is.estimated at 
three hundred weight. The vale of Berkley contains 
50,000 acres, two-thirds sf which are occupied by cows, 
to the number of 7000 or 8000 ; and their annual pro- 
duce of cheese is from 1000 to 1200 tons. As con 
nected with this subject, the whey-butter of the vale 
of Berkley may be mentioned, which, if well made, 
and eaten fresh, is superior to the milk-butter of many 
districts: the produce of whey-butter is estimated at 
half a pound a cow a week, Sec Darry, p. 559. © 
There are few orchards on the Coteswold. hills, but Cider. 
in the vale and forest districts, they are abundant and 
valuable. Of the different kinds of cider made in this 
county, the Stire cider is deemed the best. The fruit 
from which it is made, flourishes particularly on the thin 
lime-stone soils on the margin of the forest of Dean. 
It is remarked, that the cider made from the Stire 
apple which grows here, is distinguished by richness, 
sweetness, and fulness of flavour; whereas, same 
apple, in the vale of Gloucester, a strong, deep, rich 
soil, affords a liquor whose ominating qualities are 
roughness and strength. There is nothing peeuliar in 
the mode of manufacturing cider in this county. Of 
pears, the squash is in much the highest esteem: in the Perry. 
township of Taynton, on the Gloucestershire side of 
Mayhill, where the soil is a strong brown clay, squash- 
pear perry, of a very superior quality, is made. It is 
said the. of this district is the basis of most of 
the wine sold for Champagne in the metropolis 
On the Coteswold hills, beech and ash are the priti= woo, 
cipal trees. In the vale, there are but few tracts of 
woodland. The quantity of ground in Dean forest, 
belonging to the crown, is upwards of 23,000 acres. 
It formerly supplied about 1000 tons of ship timber 
annually. The forest is under the government of a 
lord warden. At Totworth, the chesnut tree is still 
growing, which, according to Evelyn, was 500 years 
old in the reign of King John. It was measured in 
1791, when it was 44 feet and four inches in circum~ 
ference. Till the year 1790, when it was burned down, 
there was an oak growing at Bodington, the circum- 
ference of which, at the ground, was 18 yards: the 
stem was hollow, forming a room more than 16 feet in 
diameter, 
The wages of farm servants in Gloucestershire are 
not high, but the allowance of drink is enormous ; six 
quarts a day is the common allowance, frequently two 
gallons, sometimes nine or ten quarts; drinking a gallon 
bottle full of cider at a draught is said to be no uncommon 
feat. In the immediate neighbourhood of the forest, coal, 
being cheap and abundant, is the common fuel: in other 
parts of the county, the Staffordshire and Shropshire coal 
is burnt; but on the Coteswolds, all kind of fuel is scarce 
and dear, The roads of this, like most of the other 
western counties, are by no means good; on the Cotes- Road 
wolds, the calcareous grit is too soft for durable roads ; 
and there are still greater difficulties in the vale, from 
