1 60 THE VALE OF PEWSEY 



usual in the chalk counties, the farms stretch in strips 

 from the valley to the summit of the downs. At the 

 base lies the heaviest land, in permanent pasture, to 

 be succeeded by three-field land i.e. land farmed on 

 a rotation of beans, wheat, fallow while still higher 

 on the loams at the base of the chalk the Wiltshire 

 four-field system is followed. This rotation, so general 

 over all the chalk in the South of England, differs 

 essentially from the Norfolk four-course system in that 

 two corn crops are taken in succession, generally wheat 

 followed by barley. Then the land lies for two years 

 under successive green crops, which are eaten off by 

 sheep ; rye, winter barley, vetches, and rape being 

 sown in succession as the stubbles are ploughed, and 

 followed up with more vetches and rape or summer 

 turnips, until the land carries at least three crops 

 during the two years of fallow. At the summit of the 

 farm comes the " bake," land which either grows 

 alternate oats and rape, or is unbroken sheep walk, the 

 down proper. Small as is the productive capacity of 

 this grassland, it is yet of great value to the farmer as 

 affording a dry and healthy run for the sheep, which 

 otherwise obtain their food by folding upon the 

 arable. 



Even considering that a considerable proportion of 

 the farms, up to one-third of their area, consist of this 

 poor bake and sheep walk, the prevailing rents of 1 2s. 

 to 155. an acre could not be considered high : but more 

 was then being asked wherever a vacancy occurs, and no 

 farms were in the market. The lower land is probably 

 as good as any that exists in England, a deep and 

 well-tempered loam blessed with an excellent climate ; 

 and forty years ago Topley speculated why fruit- and 

 hop-growing had never established themselves in this 

 district, where the conditions were apparently just as 



