256 
Farming of Oxfordshire. 
pigsties, &c., are at the other end. It all opens to the south, 
the building being supported by iron pillars fixed in stone. 
The interior of the yard is chiefly fitted up for cows, as a large 
portion of the farm is pasture. The roof consists of thiee spans, 
and is boarded under the slates ; the timber used is deal, and 
the walls are built of the Portland stone of the neighbourhood. 
The outlay was calculated at 600/. 
The farms of Oxfordshire are generally small ; between 200 
and 300 acres is considered a good sized holding. On the 
stonebrash the farms are larger ; for instance, at Blackbourton 
the parish contains 2200 acres, and is divided into three occu- 
pations ; but for the most part the farms are too small. The 
larger occupations are usually the best cultivated. There are 
certainly more tenants with slender capital than there are 
wealthy farmers, and perhaps a small occupation may let for a 
trifle more per acre than a large tract of land, but a small farm 
always requires more buildings in proportion than a large one. All 
arable farms, to be carried on successfully, .should be of -sufficient 
extent to emploj/ superior machines and improved implements. 
It may be argued that the leviathan farmer will take more land 
than his capital would warrant. But the same observation more 
generally applies to small tenants, who now and then take farms 
with hardly any capital. Industry, without capital to back it, 
is of little avail, and the man who enters a farm with little cash, 
stands a good chance of quitting it a beggar. A man to enter 
on a heavy land occupation, should have at least a capital of 
8/. per acre, but, if he possesses that amount oi money, he will 
consider before setting himself fast in the adhesive mire of the 
Oxford clays. There has been no difficulty, even in the de- 
sponding periods of tlie last few years, in finding respectable 
tenants for stock farms at a fair rent. But even now clay lands, 
if undrained or out of condition, are very difficult to let. This 
is natural, for, since the time of the last report, the average 
price of the produce of stock farms has considerably increased, 
while the staple produce of clay lands has retrograded in value. 
Foreign competition cannot very seriously affect perishable arti- 
cles. But the difference in price is not solely attributable to this 
cause ; we must look for it in the different modes of living our 
increased prosperity has engendered. The average annual con- 
sumption of our population amounts to 9/. 10s. for meat, butter, 
and milk, the produce of a stock farm ; while it is little more 
than 22s. per head for wheat, the staple produce of clay land. 
Barley, the only corn crop that has maintained its value, is not 
a necessary, and even this grain the clay farmer cannot produce 
in perfection. With increased charges, and diminished prices, 
the men of capital are induced to shun the heavy lands, as the 
