Farming of Oxfordshii-e. 
217 
Of course a considerable extent of vetches is grown to supply 
seed for the next year's green crops. Peas are not extensively 
sown; thej are reckoned a "casuaUj" crop, and unless well 
attended to, fill the land with all sorts of " beggary." White 
boilers are the favourites ; l)ut grey and maple peas are grown 
alone, and also mixed with beans. 
There is not any flax cultivated in the south of the county, 
but about Eynsham, and on the lands in hand at Blenheim, a 
large extent is grown. Flax is usually planted after wheat, and 
is taken instead of beans to be followed by barley. About 
2j pecks of flax are sown from the seed-barrow in the last week 
of March or first of April. The crop requires hand-weeding, 
and in July is pulled before it is quite ripe, and tied in small 
sheaves of 6 inches in diameter. This costs 12s. or 14s. an acre; 
and the flax requires about ten days groundage befoi'e it is carried. 
It is threshed with a flat beater, at 9J. to Is. per bushel, and 
the straw tied up in large bundles, six of the smaller sheaves 
making one bundle. The straw is steeped under water for 14 or 
20 days, and is then ready for the scutching, which can be per- 
formed by the hand, but is a tedious operation as well as expensive. 
Coombe Mills, on the Evenlode, are now being fitted with 
machinery for preparing the flax for market. As the steeping 
of the straw takes place in the farmer's busy season of May, the 
flax is often " dew-retted," by being thinly spread over the 
young clovers for five or six weeks in February and March. It 
protects the seeds from late frosts, and after turning will be 
ready for scutching. The yield of seed may average 24 bushels 
per acre, and sells at 7s. to 8s. per bushel. An acre of straw 
will produce 5 or 6 cwt. of dressed flax, and about 1 cwt. of tow. 
The flax is worth from bd. to 8fZ. per lb., and the tow about Zd. 
A very large quantity of sainfoin is grown in this county. On 
the stonebrash and the chalk it flourishes well, a calcareous 
subsoil being favourable to its growth. In the Chiltern district 
there is no regularity as to the quantity sown, or length of time 
during which it remains down. On some farms there is a great 
extent, on others none at all. Some let it lie as long as it will 
produce a ton of hay per acre ; others plough it up in three 
years. It is the general rule with good farmers on the stone- 
brash to have one-tenth of their land in sainfoin, which continues 
down five or six years. There is a notion, surely an erroneous 
one, that sainfoin is best laid down after tico white straw crops. 
It is contended that the natural grasses are not so plentiful as 
when sown in barley succeeding turnips. This last is the stipu- 
lated course in some agreements. Four bushels of sainfoin 
seed are usually drilled across the barley, and 4 lbs. of trefoil 
added. The dreadful failure in the yield of all seeds last year, 
