1 62 THE VALE OF PEWSEY 



been sown on 3rd February, we saw ready to cut on the 

 22nd of July, the earliest harvest in that district since 



1874- 



Of the other crops, wheat was good, as elsewhere 

 the crop of the year ; oats were fair, but beans almost 

 a complete failure, having been ravaged by aphis. 

 Early-sown mangolds were good, as were some of the 

 turnips that had received the benefits of the Coronation 

 rains ; but, as often in Wiltshire, late sowing is most 

 general with turnips, to which indeed rape is preferred. 

 The heavier land of the Vale is very good for man- 

 golds, of which a large stock was wanted for the five 

 hundred milch cattle on the farm we were visiting. 

 On this good land, too, a strict rotation was not 

 always followed ; our host told us that one valuable 

 lesson he had derived from the Rothamsted experi- 

 ments was the possibility and safety of growing three 

 or even more corn crops in succession. The difficulty 

 of finding milkers does not seem to be felt in the Vale 

 of Pewsey ; instead, we were informed that the supply of 

 labour was quite satisfactory, the provision of good 

 cottages being the chief factor in retaining men in 

 the district. We gathered that the labourers were 

 perhaps a more stable population than the farmers ; 

 most of the older occupiers had been ruined or had 

 retired in the depression, and new men had come in 

 to take their place, but the labourers, even if they did 

 a little wandering when young and restless, generally 

 came back to their native country. And, indeed, we 

 could well believe that the Vale, with its deeply- 

 bowered cottages, its look of sleek enduring fertility, 

 with the shapely downs backing the outlook north and 

 south, would develop an enduring discontent with any 

 other land. 



