222 
Farming of Oxfordshire. 
carefully removed. If all proprietors of land intersected bj this 
river would adopt the same plan the destructive summer floods 
would become less frequent. 
The waters of the Cherwell are soon out, and soon off : they 
rise with astonishing rapidity, and last July full threefourths of 
the hay was swept away by the floods. In addition to the im- 
pediments already adverted to, the numerous mills on this stream 
considerably aufiraent the mischief, and the same may be said 
of those on the Evenlode and VVindrush. 
There are not many water-meadows in the county. At the 
foot of Blenheim Park are 70 acres on the Evenlode ; these are 
well shaped and highly productive. The soil of the Thames 
meadows is well adapted for irrigation. At all the mills and 
locks on the river there is sufficiency of fall to water at a 
small expense a large tract of meadows below. There are a 
few patches of catch-meadows at the foot of the chalk hills ; 
some growing an abundance of grass : the most extensive are at 
Shirburn, where about 50 acres of the park are irrigated. A very 
well contrived catch-meadow has recently been formed on a hilly 
piece of ground at Chadlington, which shows how easily streams 
can be diverted for purposes of irrigation, 
Oxfordshire is by no means a grazing county. Such stock as 
are kept are for the most part maintained for dairy purposes. 
It will perhaps render this part of the report less complicated 
if the cattle are treated of under two heads : those kept on arable 
farms and those on the grass and dairy lands. It is the common 
practice of the arable farmers in the south of Oxfordshire to 
keep no bullocks, but to buy in a few dry cows, or young stock, 
to tread down the straw in the yards : these generally receive an 
allowance of hay and corn chaff and caving, and are sometimes 
permitted to taste a few swedes and a little oilcake, but this is 
not often. The cows are sold in the spring ; those that are in 
calf to the dairymen in the neighbourhood, and the barren cows 
chiefly go to be grazed on the good pastures of Buckingham- 
shire. The farmers of the Cotswold district, who keep two or 
three cows, contrive now to rear some cattle in a district where 
thirty years ago it was considered impossible to do so ; these are 
principally Herefords or cross-bred cattle. On a farm of 300 
or 400 acres, ten or fifteen are annually brought up : some of 
these cattle at 2 years old are broken in and worked till 5 
years old, when they are disposed of in store order at the various 
fairs and markets. Of course there are some farmers who stall- 
feed cattle, but they are not numerous. A few gentlemen and 
yeomen turn out excellent cattle. At Eynsham are grazed 50 
worked Hereford oxen, useful butcher's bullocks and heavy 
weighers ; these are cleared out at Christmas, and their places 
