128 
Farming  of  Gloucestershire. 
has  encouraged  the  multiplication  of  several  families  which  are 
extremely  destructive  to  crops.  The  wirevvorm-beetles  (Ela- 
tenda),  golden-beetles  (Chrysomelida),  including  the  numerous 
species  of  turnip  “fly,”  and  other  vegetable  feeders,  are  indi- 
vidually, as  well  as  specifically,  but  too  abundant.  More  than 
100  species  of  weevils  (Rynchophora)  have  been  taken  by  Mr. 
Joshua  Brown  and  Professor  Woodward  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Cirencester. 
There  are  reasons  for  believing  that  the  ordinary  migrations 
alone,  even  of  insects,  are  slow,  and  that  the  co-operation  of  the 
farmer  in  adopting  methods  of  prevention  would  be  attended  with 
more  success  than  is  believed.  The  most  obvious  practices  to  be 
recommended  are,  1st,  paring  and  burning;  2nd,  the  cultivation 
of  the  hedgerows  : nor  should  the  encouragement  of  insect-eating 
birds  be  deemed  less  worthy  of  the  farmer’s  attention  than  the 
protection  of  game. 
The  Vale  of  the  Isis  or  Thames. — This,  our  first  agricultural 
division,  comprises  but  a small  portion  of  the  county,  and  lies  on 
the  south-eastern  side,  extending  from  Didmarton,  past  Tetbury, 
Cirencester,  and  Barnsley,  to  Eastleach.  From  Didmarton  to 
Cirencester  it  little  more  than  skirts  the  border  of  the  county, 
scarcely  being  a parish  in  width,  but  at  Cirencester  it  widens  con- 
siderably; and  from  Barnsley  Park  to  the  outside  of  the  county 
at  Down  Ampney,  its  breadth  is  not  less  than  6^  miles.  Very 
little  of  the  Oxford  clay,  except  in  the  parish  of  Minety,  exhibits 
its  natural  quality  of  tenacity : it  is  almost  entirely  covered  with 
oolitic  gravel  of  several  feet  in  depth.  The  Kelloway  is  scarcely 
worthy  of  notice;  some  sandy  hills  at  Driffield  and  on  the  north- 
west portion  of  Minety  belong  to  this  division.  The  cornbrash 
is  more  fully  developed,  and  covers  not  quite  one-third  of  this 
district,  but  the  soil  partakes  of  the  character  of  the  forest-marble 
in  consequence  of  its  being  so  thin  and  in  many  parts  denuded. 
The  forest-marble  and  Bradford  clay  form  the  largest  portion  of 
this  division.  Cirencester  is  situate  in  a vale  from  which  this  soil 
has  been  denuded,  and  a bed  of  gravel  deposited  from  the 
destruction  of  the  oolite  at  the  time  of  the  formation  of  the  valley 
of  the  Churn. 
The  fences  in  the  vale  of  the  Thames  are  principally  quick- 
thorn  hedges,  and  the  fields  are  rather  small,  except  on  the  gravel 
of  Down  Ampney  and  Kempsford,  averaging  about  7 acres. 
The  size  of  the  farms  is  very  variable,  ranging  from  50  acres  to 
500  or  600,  or  occasionally  700  acres.  5 or  6 per  cent,  is 
occupied  by  hedges  and  ditches,  which  might  generally  be 
reduced  to  1^  per  cent.  : this  has  been  done  some  time  by  some  of 
the  best  farmers.  The  plan  of  reducing  the  hedges,  and  after- 
