284 
Farmiwj of Buchinghamshire. 
and clay-loams which occupy the foot of the chalk district. Now, 
as a matter of course, the lighter soils of the plastic clay and the 
Thames gravel, which is composed of the silicious detritus of 
several formations, require a different style of cropping to the 
heavier loams. On tliese friahle soils the four-course is most 
common, and the land seems well adapted for the Norfolk rota- 
tion. Some farmers who have their land in good condition, and 
others from more pressing reasons, take barley after wheat. On 
the good loams of this locality a very severe rotation is common, 
viz., 1 turnips, 2 oats, 3 clover, 4 wheat, 5 barley, G beans, and 
7 wheat. It may be considered that with five corn crops in seven 
years it is impossible to keep the land clean or in good condition. 
This district possesses the advantage of being able to procure 
manure from London and from barracks and inns in the nei^h- 
bourhood ; and some of the lands cultivated in the above manner 
are in very excellent order. Without wishing to particularise 
any, a ride over the Chippenham Court Farm will at once convince 
the most inveterate stickler for tlie four-course that good crops 
and good husbandry may be attained under such a severe rotation. 
Great care and much expense are necessary to eradicate annuals 
and root weeds, and every string of couch that is left in the 
turnip-ground is forked out during the autumn. The clover, by 
coming but once in seven years, stands well, and oats and barley, 
after turnips and the wheat, are changed as the condition of the 
land and the wishes of the cultivator may require. Of course, 
this system would be very mucli improved by the omission of 
a second white-straw crop in the fifth year, for that is tlie chief, 
if not its only fault. If the rotation ended with the fifth year, 
then, indeed, the consecutive white-straw crops might do ; but as 
two other corn crops are to follow, in the majority of instances 
this must be wrong. As it is, with good and clean farmers the 
system flourishes ; but with less careful men it produces neither 
good crops nor clean land. 
On the south side of the Chiltern district the land and the 
farming are both so inferior that it is very difficult to say what 
course of cropping is pursued. Tlie four and five courses, or 
modifications of them, are most common, and sometimes grass 
seeds lie for a longer period than one year. On the elevated 
lands of the interior, and the gravelly soils which compose the 
narrow valleys of the chalks, it is too general to take turnips, 
barley or oats, seeds, wheat, and then barley. Now the land of 
this locality is not of first-rate quality, nor is the farming so 
superlatively high as to justify this extra whipping crop. The 
sheep form the principal stock, and are well fed and properly 
managed ; but as little heavy stock is kept, the manure from the 
yards is of the most inferior description. On the lower chalk 
