1 70 THE UPPER THAMES VALLEY 



Valley, the effect of the summer's drought was less 

 apparent than in any country we had seen. Most of 

 the country is under the plough, but the second growth 

 of the clover was green and luxuriant, and the root 

 crops were all that could be wished, growing vigorously 

 with scarcely a miss perceptible. Late-sown oats 

 were still quite green and looked like making yields of 

 over average, so heavy and well filled were the heads, 

 even if the straw was short. Barley is extensively 

 grown in this district, and was not ripening off so pre- 

 maturely as on the chalk, while wheat was, as usual, 

 the crop of the year, most brilliant in colour, with a 

 gloss and shine about it that we had not hitherto seen 

 even in that year of handsome corn crops. 



The Cotswold farmers follow a very normal four- 

 course rotation ; two corn crops are sometimes taken 

 after ley, which itself is often left down for two years 

 on the heavier soils ; occasional fields of vetches and 

 lucerne vary the cropping, but we saw neither peas nor 

 beans. Paring and burning the stubble is also a 

 practice not often met with in other districts. The 

 permanent grass was less attractive than the plough- 

 land, much of it being weedy and looking in want 

 both of management and of manure ; the proportion 

 increases as the land rises towards the escarpment, 

 where, too, some very fine beech woods are encountered. 

 Horned stock are not abundant, and we were much 

 surprised to traverse the whole ridge without seeing 

 a single Cotswold sheep, though there were Hamp- 

 shires and Oxford Downs in plenty. Yet the Cotswold 

 sheep once possessed a position in the export market, 

 being valuable for crossing when both wool and mutton 

 are wanted together. Big white-faced, long-woolled, 

 a little coarse perhaps, the Cotswold is perhaps the 

 most typical modern representative of the old English 



