206 
Farming of Oxfordshire. 
two good crops in one year : but not only is this constantly 
done, but in the present season at Rofford three very good crops 
have been produced. The first was vetches fed off, then a crop 
of mustard, which, when folded, was as high as the hurdles, and 
there is now a famous field of turnips which is being consumed 
by sheep, and the land will be planted with oats. Of course the 
droppings of the sheep and their treading give a richness and 
solidity essential on such warm soils for the production of future 
grain crops. In the course at Dorchester, before mentioned, 
where one-half of the fallow-ground is first planted with oats 
and peas, the wheat stubbles are skimmed with a common plough 
directly after or during harvest, antl the couch is all forked out 
by hand. Parkes' cast-steel digging forks are the best for this 
purpose, but the great obstacle to their adoption into general 
use is the serious trouble of mending them when broken. 
The land being thus cleansed from root weeds, the annuals 
are allowed to vegetate, and the ground is perhaps dunged, and 
the peas and oats sown in February and March; these being 
cleaned off in August tlie ground is ploughed and drilled with 
turnips. Of course the most incessant war is waged against 
weeds of every kind ; the horse and hand hoes are kept con- 
stantly at work, and the amount paid for manual labour on farms 
which contain a good proportion of meadow-land is little short 
of 5O5. per acre. Of course there is not a very large tract of 
land that will bear with any certainty a green crop and a root 
crop in the same year. The stonebrash district is light, but 
mostly appears too cold, and not quick enough for this double 
culture. There are also a great many excellent stock farms, 
where- the land is a little too retentive to be kind for turnips 
after the vetches are fed off. On such soils, in attempting to 
grow two crops, both are frequently inferior to a good field of 
swedes. But on the gravels of the Oxford clays, as at Eynsham, 
and on the sandy soils as at Cuddesden, Milton, and Ascott, or the 
gravelly loams at Ewelme, Dorchester, and the Stokes — there this 
double cropping may be seen carried out in a manner which 
reflects the highest credit on the enlightened husbandmen of 
those localities. There is never any fear of having annual weeds 
with a good crop of vetches, as everything is smothered, but if 
the vetches are thin and weak the land will be sure to be full of 
" filth and trumpery." While upon the subject of weeds it may 
be observed that Oxfordshire is so well supplied with them that 
they constantly weary and vex the careful farmer. All over the 
country, but especially on the chalky soils, the field charlock 
(^Sinapis arvensis) is a dreadful plague, appearing in some 
seasons in incredible quantities. Some sandy soils are much 
overrun with the wild radish { Raphanus rajjhanistrum), provin- 
