Farming  of  Gloucestershire. 
145 
Horses. — The  horses  in  general  use  amongst  the  farmers  are 
the  native  blacks.  They  are  not  very  large,  and  have  become 
more  active  and  cleaner  in  the  leg  from  having  been  crossed  with 
the  Flanders  for  several  years  past.  The  Suffolk  breed  has  been 
introduced  by  many  gentlemen  into  the  county,  but  the  use  of 
these  animals  does  not  appear  to  have  extended  so  rapidly  as 
their  merits  deserve. 
Within  the  last  twenty  years  much  of  the  land  on  the  Cots- 
wolds  has  been  ploughed  with  two  horses  only.  A considerable 
portion  is  comparatively  easy  to  plough,  but  on  the  eastern 
boundary,  and  particularly  on  the  Forest-marble  and  Bradford 
clays,  it  is  very  hard  work.  A pair  of  horses  only  have  always 
been  used  on  the  College  Farm  at  plough,  but  the  pair  of  horses 
of  theirs  have  cost  more  to  keep  them  up  than  three  of  the  horses 
of  the  neighbouring  farmers. 
The  Vale. 
Evesham,  Gloucester , and  Berkeley. — Our  third  agricultural 
division  of  the  county  comprises  the  vales  of  Gloucester,  Berke- 
ley, and  Evesham,  the  farming  practised  in  which  we  are  now 
called  upon  briefly  to  describe.  The  soil  in  this  division  varies 
very  considerably.  Here  we  find  a small  portion  of  very  superior 
land  of  a sandy  loam,  called  drift  by  geologists.  This  descrip- 
tion of  land,  being  foreign  to  the  general  character  of  the  district, 
is  only  to  be  met  with  in  detached  portions,  as  at  Frampton-on- 
Severn,  Haresfield,  Whitcombe,  around  the  town  of  Chelten- 
ham, at  Shurdington,  Uckington,  Common  Fields,  &c.  This 
soil  produces  large  crops  of  turnips,  wurzel,  carrots,  and  all 
other  root  and  green  crops,  alternately  with  wheat,  for  many 
years  together,  under  the  management  of  its  best  farmers,  feed- 
ing sheep  and  cattle,  both  in  the  sheds  and  in  the  field.  What 
is  practised  on  farms  composed  of  such  land  is  no  criterion  for 
the  farmers  on  the  lias  clay,  the  prevailing  soil  of  the  district. 
This  clay  forms  the  soil  as  well  as  subsoil  in  many  places.  It  is 
sufficiently  calcareous  not  to  require  liming.  The  soil  is  not  of 
that  hollow  kind  which  is  characteristic  of  the  Cotswolds,  and 
scours  from  the  plough  and  other  implements  much  better.  It  is 
ploughed  much  deeper  and  requires  more  strength,  which  is  in 
some  measure  attributable  to  its  being  ploughed  in  such  high 
lands  or  ridges,  especially  when  being  gathered  up  towards  their 
tops,  causing  so  much  more  friction  against  the  hard  furrow. 
Few  farms  have  an  uniform  soil ; some  fields  being  rather  sandy, 
VOL.  XI.  L 
