190 
Farming of Oxfordshire. 
Wednesday in each month, at which much business is trans- 
acted.* 
A great number of the parishes are divided into hamlets, each 
hamlet repairing its own roads ; but the poor and church rates 
are undivided. The parishes at the northern edge of the Chiltern 
district are often very long and narrow. The churches and villages 
are at the foot of the hills, while the parish embraces a long 
strip of the up-hill country and woodland. Thus the parish of 
Pyrton contains 4735 acres, and is 1 I. miles in length ; and of 
many others tlie configuration is equally bad. Of course the 
duties of the parish officers in collecting the rates are very 
(merous, and the distance of the church and school is plainly 
manifested in the half savage manners and wretched appearance 
of the up-hill poor. 
The climate of Oxfordshire is certainly cold, especially at its 
extremities ; in the north from its openness and in the south 
from its elevation. The Chiltern district is also suliject to dense 
fogs, which hang very heavily upon the hills and woodlands. 
At the foot of the chalk range there is a constant current of air, 
and the frost takes effect sooner, and lingers longer than it does 
on the summit of the hills, or at a distance from them. It 
appears from the following meteorological returns from the 
RadclifFe observatory, as compared with those taken in the 
neighbourhood of London (which has the same latitude as the 
southern limit of the county), that the amount of rain in Oxford 
considerably exceeds that of London, while the range of the 
thermometer is nearly one degree lower. 
* Of the other markets, Banbury is excellent for fat and lean stock, and its 
monthly fair is well supplied. Since the opening of the railroad to Birmingham 
there has been a good sale for all sorts of corn, and it is the most business-like, 
thriving town in the county. Henley was formerly the best market in Oxford- 
shire. Latterly it has much declined, but is still noted for a ready sale of first- 
class barleys at extreme quotations. Thame is a bad corn-market, but is well 
supplied with fat stock from the Vale of Aylesbury during the summer months 
and in the autumn. A vast number of calves are brought from the dairy-grounds, 
and disposed of for suckling and rearing. Chipping-Norton and Bicester are well 
supplied with com, and have monthly cattle-markets. Some of the other markets 
are fairly attended in the autumn, but fall off as spring advances; while in the 
rest of the towns the market consists only of a social gathering of farmers in the 
evening. Most of the corn gi'own in the south-western portion of the county is 
sold at Wallingford and Reading. In a few markets it is common to pitch the Imlk, 
and the corn is sold from a sack, but the greater portion is disposed of by sample. 
In common with other counties, Oxfordshire has its provincial weights and 
measures. Corn is sometimes sold by the quarter, but more frequently by ihe 
I ad of 40 bushels. Meat is disposed of by the 8lb. stone; but bacon pigs by 
the score of iOlbs. In unenclosed parishes the field-acre contains somewhere 
about 3 roods ; and the length of the rod or pole for measuring draining and 
ditching varies throughout the county ; but when mentioned in this Report is sup- 
posed to contain 1 6 feet 6 inches. 
