Farming of Oxfordshire. 
269 
proved breeds of cattle and sheep, together with many minor 
improvements, may be gathered from a perusal of the foregoing 
pages. 
The improvements still required are both numerous and im- 
portant : tlie principal are of such magnitude that they can only 
be originated by the landlords. Throughout the county there 
is great need of better situated, more extensive, and more con- 
venient farm-buildings ; also the formation of good farm roads, 
the extension of an improved system of drainage, the speedy 
adoption of some effectual means of obviating summer inunda- 
tions, and giving the occupiers of land increased security of 
tenure. 
Tiie tenantry should continue to give increased attention to 
the growth of green and root crops, and, when necessary, apply 
liberal doses of artificial manure. They should keep a heavier 
stock of cattle, and devote more care to the formation and pre- 
servation of farmyard manure. They should also dispense with 
all superfluous horse-labour, use better implements, and more 
machinery, and cultivate most of the soils more deeply. The 
pasture land ought to receive more generous treatment, and the 
ditches and water-courses should receive constant attention. 
Many of these improvements are already carried out on some 
good farms, and most of the suggestions apply with especial 
force to the corn lands of the county. 
It may be remarked that little has yet been said about the 
" best method of treating the heavy clay land known as the 
Oxford clay." Let us suppose a too common case : a field of 
clay land, wet, foul, and poor. It must be drained, cleaned, 
and manured before it can produce a good crop. The remedies 
though simple are expensive. Before that field should again be 
planted with corn, above 6/. per acre should be expended on it ; 
and then much must depend on the weather, that the work may 
be accomplished effectually. The plastic, gault, Kimmeridge, 
and Oxford clays, as well as the stiff, chalky loams, may all be 
treated under one head. Varying as they do in tenacity and in 
composition, all may be considered heavy land ; and though 
there are differences between them, differences equally great 
exist on the same formation, and often in the same parish. 
Before attempting to suggest a better method of treating the 
heavy clay lands of the county, it will be well to consider the 
causes of their defective progress and present barrenness. All 
good soils have a naturally porous subsoil. The Oxfordshire 
clays have not. The high semicircular ridges and open furrows 
are an attempt to let off the rain-water ; but if the water does not 
stand on the surface, it stagnates between the soil and subsoil, 
and every particle is thoroughly saturated. The soluble manures 
VOL. XV, T 
