MILK PRODUCTION 161 



favourable as in Kent on the one hand or Hereford on 

 the other. 



While the old Wiltshire farming was mainly de- 

 pendent upon sheep and barley, in the Vale of Pewsey 

 conditions have been changing, and the production of 

 milk for the London market has now become almost 

 the mainstay of the industry. The cows are largely 

 fed upon produce drawn from the arable, though there 

 has been some laying down of land to grass, and as the 

 grass is heavily stocked it requires a good deal of 

 attention to keep it in good heart. The arable mostly 

 derives its fertility from the cake and corn consumed 

 by the folded sheep, together with superphosphate sown 

 for the root crops ; thus the dung made by the dairy 

 cattle can be largely retained for the grassland, to which 

 it imparts some staying power in the dry conditions 

 which are normal. Farmyard manure seems to be less 

 essential for the arable land, in which the constant folding 

 can maintain a sufficient stock of humus. One great 

 merit of the Wiltshire system is that no attempt is made 

 to sow barley on the irregularly folded and often late- 

 ploughed fallow ; whereas the wheat crop is not affected 

 by the poor tilth and rank manuring which often results 

 from folding, and on its stubble there is plenty of time left 

 to prepare for barley. One of the best barley-growers 

 in the Vale holds that no good barley is likely to be 

 obtained except after an autumn ploughing, followed by 

 the minimum labour in the spring that will just drag 

 the furrows down preparatory to sowing. That year 

 his barley was short in the straw, yet still a fair crop 

 that had just missed being first-rate through the last 

 drought of July ; the sun had bleached it to a remark- 

 able whiteness, but the recent want of rain had pre- 

 vented the grain from filling properly, and produced a 

 somewhat thin and steely sample. One field that had 



