29 
The Agriculture of the Cotswolds. 
landscape is great. Six miles from the former, from the 
top of an hill is seen to the right a most prodigious 
prospect, over an extensive vale bounded by Cheltenham 
hills, which seem to tower quite to the clouds ; the 
inclosures appear in a bottom under you, and are very 
distinct. All this country is full of picturesque views ; 
the romantic spots of Crickley Hill are exceedingly fine. 
Rents run from 6s. to 12s. an acre, but in general 6s. or 7s. 
The farms above hill are large ; from two to three hundred 
a year, and some more ; but in the Yale of Gloucester they 
are much less. What grass they have they mow ; very 
few beasts are grazed, and but few dairies, except in the 
vale, where they have all that fine breed of hogs which at 
Barnet market are called the Shropshires, with exceedingly 
long carcases, and long slouching ears, which almost train 
upon the ground, to make way for their noses. Oxen are 
much used, never less than six in a plough, frequently 
eight. They are reckoned the most profitable by some 
farmers, and horses by others. Wages are 8d. to 10 d. in 
winter. The stoutest fellows often want work for 9 d., 
and cannot readily get it. In hay time, for mowing Is. 
and Is. 2d. ; in harvest Is. 8d. Beef costs 4^., mutton 4 \d.. 
butter Id ., bread 5^ lbs. for Is.” 
The cultivation of the soil for the usual crops is now as 
follows : — 
Wheat . — On the Cotswolds it is not the practice to dung 
the land for wheat, and the seeds are ploughed early, a stale 
funow being best, the teams being often at work in August. 
The roll follows the plough and makes the land firm? A 
seed-bed is prepared with drags and harrows, and about 9 pecks 
of corn is drilled early in October with the two-horse drill and 
harrowed in. In spring, the wheat is rolled and lightly 
harrowed, and when ripe is cut and tied by the binder. Hoeing 
is now seldom practised, and more thistles and docks are seen 
at harvest time than formerly. Occasionally, when the land is 
clean and in good heart, peas or barley are grown on a wheat 
stubble, but as a rule roots follow wheat. 
Roots. After harvest the stubbles should be cultivated, and 
the acreage that can be treated in this way depends on the 
season. When weather permits, the cultivator is followed by 
the roll, and the rubbish dragged out and burnt, and if this can 
be done in the autumn it saves work in the spring, when the 
horses are more busily employed. A small acreage only of 
mangold is grown on hill farms, and the land for this is dunged 
and ploughed first. That intended for swedes and turnips is 
also dunged as far as the manure will go, and all is ploughed by 
