12 
Agriculture of Berkshire. 
Here the farms are large, ranging from 400 acres to 1000 acres, 
and are in some cases cultivated by their proprietors, but more 
frequently by an intelligent and influential body of tenant-farmers. 
They are, generally speaking, well adapted for the breeding of 
sheep, which are usually sold at the fortnightly markets or fairs 
held in the spring, summer, and autumn months, at East Ilsley, 
in the centre of this division, and are for the most part taken 
into the grazing districts : the ewes to produce early lambs for 
fattening, and the rest to be fed for the London market. 
The valley of the Thames, part of the Kennet Valley towards 
Reading, and the other portion of this district on the south-east 
side, are suited for the growth of white wheat ; the northern and 
western parts are celebrated for producing red wheat of good 
quality, the best samples of which always command a high price 
from the millers for mixing with the white wheats and giving 
strength to the flour. The barley grown on the gravelly soils and 
chalk hills is generally of a superior quality, and, in dry seasons 
like the last, the produce of the strong land is very good, but for 
the most part they are planted with oats, producing from 10 to 
12 quarters per acre. Beans and peas are sometimes grown, 
but only to a small extent, being a very uncertain crop. Peas of 
an early sort are planted on the eastern side of the county, and 
are sold for gathering to supply the London markets, the land 
being immediately afterwards ploughed and sown with turnips. 
Under the present improved system of cultivation there is but 
little of this division that does not produce good crops of roots 
and artificial grasses. 
drd Division. — The Vale. — Below the escarpment of the 
<^halk, as we descend into the Vale, we come to the Upper Green- 
sand and Gault ; which runs east and west, and follows the line of 
the Lower Chalk, occupying a breadth of about 5 miles. The soil — 
a mixture of the lower chalk, marl, and greensand — is very rich, 
and fit for the production of every kind of crop ; it may be 
classed with the best corn-producing lands in England, particu- 
larly in the four parishes of Challow, Wantage-cum-Charlton, 
Ardington, and Hendred, where much of the land is of easy 
tillage, and yet will carry wheat to a very great bulk without 
being laid. It is generally planted with two white crops in suc- 
cession, or in some instances with wheat and beans in alternate 
years, and it continues to produce good crops under this manage- 
ment. 
The beautiful sample of hops which is produced at Milton 
Hill, shows that the soil is peculiarly suited to the growth of 
that plant, but — ^as in character it much resembles that in the 
neighbourhood of Farnham in Kent— this fact requires no further 
•comment, than that it is surprising that this crop is not cultivated 
