176 
Farming  of  Gloucestershire. 
and  poaching  of  stock  in  winter,  and  he  is  now  beginning  to  see 
that  shelter  and  warmth  are  equivalents  for  food,  and  that  the 
abandonment  of  field-foddering  will  improve  stock  as  well  as  his 
land.  As  well  as  more  provision  for  young  stock,  more  sheds, 
stalls,  or  boxes  are  required  for  stock  generally.  With  a greater 
abundance  of  the  root-crop  and  green  food  a necessity  will  arise 
for  better  provision  for  the  economical  consumption  of  part  of  it 
in  sheds  and  yards.  In  new  erections  of  farm-buildings  this 
should  be  borne  in  mind,  and  less  money  expended  in  the  erection 
of  enormous  barns.  Three  or  four  are  sometimes  met  with  on  a 
farm  of  500  or  600  acres.  The  tenant  of  700  acres  of  light  land, 
with  three  barns,  lately  came  to  ask  me  to  build  him  a chaff-house, 
and  at  first  could  not  part  with  one  of  the  barns  for  the  purpose 
on  any  account.  I quietly  maintained  my  position,  and  subse- 
quently converted  one  of  the  barns  into  a chaff-house,  in  which  he 
has  placed  his  machine,  and  it  answers  admirably.  A good 
roomy  place  in  which  to  cut  hay  and  straw  into  chaff  has  become 
as  indispensable  a building  as  the  barn  itself. 
We  have  several,  I might  say  many,  tile-yards  erected  and 
machinery  at  work  for  the  manufacture  of  pipes  and  tiles  for 
draining,  but  the  prices  are,  and  without  greater  competition  still 
likely  to  remain,  much  higher  than  those  we  have  seen  mentioned 
by  Mr.  Pusey  and  others. 
The  establishment  of  more  yards  and  machinery  for  the  manu- 
facture of  pipes  and  tdes  for  draining  would  be  a great  con- 
venience to  tenants.  The  distance  of  carriage  would  be  lessened, 
as  well  as  the  prices  from  the  competition  in  the  market,  and, 
we  believe,  from  their  abundance  and  easy  access,  more  would 
be  used. 
The  removal  of  unnecessary  hedges  and  pollard  trees,  and,  in 
the  vale,  of  half  the  timber,  would  enable  the  farmer  to  bring 
into  cultivation  a considerable  quantity  of  land  that  is  almost 
waste  land  in  its  present  state.  On  the  hills  in  very  bleak  situa- 
tions belts  of  plantation  would  be  useful  as  shelter;  but  some  of 
the  fences  are  there  unnecessary,  and  others  should  be  reduced 
and  kept  low  and  narrow,  and  the  strips  which  are  now  waste 
ploughed  close  up  to  the  hedge  or  wall,  leaving  a space  uncul- 
tivated of  not  more  than  2 feet  wide  on  the  average.  About 
4 per  cent,  of  the  land  on  the  elevated  portion  of  the  county  is 
occupied  with  fences,  and  it  is  shown  by  the  practice  of  cropping 
that  not  more  than  2 per  cent,  is  required  for  fences.  Thus  by 
the  general  adoption  of  cropping  the  hedges  and  keeping  them 
reduced,  a gain  of  two  in  every  100  would  be  the  result.  In 
the  vale  about  8 per  cent,  is  occupied  with  hedges  and  ditches : 
those  may  be  reduced  so  as  to  occupy  no  more  than  A\  per 
cent.,  thus  gaining  3£.  This  is  without  considering  that  many  are 
