168 
Farming  of  Gloucestershire. 
forms  a shed  ; having  on  each  side  of  the  centre  of  the  roof  pens 
for  sheep,  which  are  open  to  the  yard,  and  are  separated  by  the 
wall  which  rises  from  the  ground  to  the  apex  of  the  roof.  The 
repeated  growth  of  wheat  on  this  farm  every  other  year,  without, 
as  far  as  we  know,  any  diminution,  is  easily  accounted  for  by  the 
consumption  of  seeds  in  folds  on  the  land,  and  the  large  quantity 
of  manure  made  from  the  consumption  of  so  large  a weight  of 
turnips,  swedes,  mangold-wurzel,  carrots,  &c.,  as  is  usually 
obtained  on  this  farm.  Thirty-eight  bushels  of  wheat  per  acre, 
on  120  acres,  appears  to  be  a great  crop;  but  it  is  not,  in  com- 
parison, so  very  much  higher  than  what  is  usually  obtained  on 
similar  soils  by  the  Gloucestershire  farmer.  The  crops  will 
average  32  bushels  per  acre,  to  which  if  we  add  what  Mr. 
Morton  grows  on  the  land  that  used  to  be  in  fences,  which  is 
equivalent  to  3 bushels  per  acre  on  his  entire  wheat  crop,  we 
bring  the  comparison  into  this  position,  viz.,  he  gains  3 bushels 
per  acre  on  his  entire  crop  by  extra  cultivation  and  management, 
besides  getting  wheat  every  other  year ; which  they  do  not  always 
— although  they  very  often  have  wheat  once  in  three  years,  and 
sometimes,  like  himself,  every  other  year.* 
Since  the  time  of  Rudge,  and,  indeed,  within  the  last  seven 
years,  a very  great  improvement  has  taken  place  in  all  parts  of  the 
county.  In  the  vale  of  the  Thames  there  are  many  farmers  who 
have  adopted  the  use  of  one  horse-carts  instead  of  waggons,  have 
drained  their  farms,  being  met  half-way  bv  their  landlords  ; have 
cut  down  their  high  and  wide  hedges,  and  adopted  the  method 
of  cropping  tlienf  yearly  ; have  abandoned  summer  fallows,  who 
sow  winter  and  spring  vetches,  which  are  eaten  off  by  sheep  in 
folds,  and  the  land  afterwards  cultivated  and  sown  with  turnips  ; 
have  adopted  the  plan  of  autumn  cleaning  stubbles,  manuring  in 
autumn  the  land  intended  for  swedes  in  the  spring;  who  drill  all 
kinds  of  grain  ; who  plough  with  two  or  sometimes  three  horses, 
instead  of  with  four  or  five,  and  plant  mangold  and  carrots, 
parsnips,  kohl  rabi,  and  who  soil  stock  in  yards  and  box-feed 
their  cattle. 
Bones  were  not  in  use  in  the  time  of  Rudge,  but  are  now 
become  general.  The  improvement  effected  by  their  use  has  no- 
where been  more  beneficial  than  on  the  calcareous  soils  of  the 
Cotswolds,  and  the  gravel  of  the  vale  of  the  Isis  and  Thames. 
Turnips  have  always  been  considered  the  foundation  of  all 
good  husbandry  on  light  soils,  and  their  growth  could  not  be 
more  beneficial  than  on  the  Cotswolds  ; but  from  the  elevated 
and  exposed  situation,  and  the  want  of  some  stimulant  to  start 
* It  must  not  be  forgotten,  however,  that  this  was  previously  a poor  dairy-farm, 
paying  neither  landlord,  farmer,  nor  labourer. — Pit.  Pusey. 
