Report:-concise, intelligent, and instructive. Not only are the varying practices clearly described, in a few words, but the reasons of them given, as they pass in

review.

Produce of Wheat-P. 196. "From the averages of parishes in the different districts, it appears that the Vale of White Horse yields about four quarters per acre: the best soils five. The Chalk districts from two and a half to three and a half quarters; the light downs from two, to two and a half; the Vale of the Kennet from three to four, the best land more; and the Forest, including his Majesty's highly cultivated farms, from three to four quarters and a half per acre."

Surplus Produce of Wheat.-P. 198. "Besides the internal consumption, and the flour consigned to London, much seed wheat is sold, particularly from the Chalk district, into Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, and some other counties. This seed has gained high and deserved reputation for its cleanness and its adaptation for other soils, and its sale adds in no small degree to the emoluments of the Berkshire farmer, while it is a source of future wealth to the neighbouring counties. The price of seed wheat being always higher than bread corn, every attention is paid to the goodness of the sample; and the demand is generally equal to the whole quantity that can be spared."

BARLEY. On this crop, nor on that of OATS, do I find any thing that requires transcription.

BEANS-Semination.--P. 210. "Beans are never sown broad cast in this county. In the eastern parts, or Forest district, and the bordering part of the Chalk district, they are not unfrequently drilled; but from the largeness of the seed, the machines in common use do not always drop them regularly, and therefore present objections to the practice. Indeed, Sir John Throckmorton, who drills all other kinds of grain, dibbles this; and throughout the greatest part of Berkshire, they are put in by the hand. Women and children, as well as men, are employed in this service, which costs about 3s. 4d. or 3s. 6d. per acre, on an average. This operation begins as early in February as the season will allow; but it may be performed as late as March. Early planting, it is thought, is a preservative against the black aphis."

PEAS.-Semination.-P. 212. "In the eastern parts of the county, peas are commonly drilled; in others they are dibbled, or sown broad cast, which last is the prevailing practice."

WOAD.-P. 230. "This plant, which delights in a deep

fat

fat friable loam, used to be cultivated about Wantage; but, though found very productive, it seems is discontinued."

BULBOUS RAPE.-P. 224. "This species begins to become a favorite in many parts of Berkshire, though a very few years ago it was little noticed."

In the APPENDIX is inserted a paper" on Transplanting Sweedish Turneps; by a BERKSHIRE AGRICULTURIST."

By an incident in practice, the writer was led (as many an attentive practitioner has fortunately been, in other instances) to a new method of propagating this valuable crop, -a method which, as an expedient at least, may be found profitable. Transplanting this variety of the common rape, or cole, is nothing new; nor is the practice of equalizing an uneven crop, by filling up the vacant ground with supernumerary plants, drawn from the overstocked parts. But transferring such surplus plants to ground that has been early freed from another crop, as tares or other green herbage, early peas &c., is an idea I have not met with, before. Yet, in a moist season, and by distributing the fresh drawn plants, in every second furrow,-as the ground is plowed, in narrow plits or slices, such a practice, I doubt not, might frequently be found profitable.

P. 542." The plants drawn were generally about the size of a walnut. I directed two children to follow every third furrow of the plough, and lay down plants along the furrow, at about six or eight inches apart; some women and children followed, and with a planting stick, set the plants in the furrow."

CULTIVATED HERBAGE.-In a section entitled "Artificial Grasses," the different species of herbage, usually cultivated in English husbandry, are enumerated, and their several properties commented upon; but without the looked for intelligence.-Indeed, there is less of useful information, and more of mistaken suggestion, in this, than in most other sections of the volume.

GRASS LANDS.-P. 235. "Berkshire being bounded and intersected by rivers, must consequently have a large proportion of meadows; and if to this we add the dairying land in the vale, and dry pastures and parks producing natural grass, the whole quantity cannot be much less than 100,000 acres, or somewhat more than a fifth of the contents of the county, without including the sheep downs on the Chalk district.

"But considerable as the proportion of grass land may appear, before the introduction of artificial grasses, it bore a much higher relative price than it does at present. In the reign of Charles II. a small portion of glebe meadow belonging

belonging to the vicarage of Hurley, on the banks of the Thames, yielded nearly the same rent as it does at the present time; and I have heard from Mr. Loveden, and other gentlemen of the county who possess meadow lands, that, except in the vicinity of towns, where, from the number of horses kept, accommodation land will let at any price, the rise of this kind of property has been very trivial, compared with its intrinsic value, and the advance on arable lands.

"Thames meadows.-Along the meandering course of the Thames, which washes this county for nearly 105 miles, a track of meadow land, of various breadths, accompanies its progress, generally of an excellent quality, and from the fertilizing effects of the water, when accidentally flooded at favourable seasons, rendered still more productive. But it is to be lamented, that the facilities which are presented for artificial watering, are very little attended to on the banks of the Thames, and that by obstructions, or neglect, the floods not unfrequently come in when they are least of all desired, when the grass is far advanced, or when it is nearly ready to be carried."

Sheep Downs.-P. 324. (Section Wastes.) "With regard to the downs, however, I am not unaware that many intelligent persons think they ought to remain in their present state. In the hilly part of this county,' says a remarker on Mr. Pearce, those lands which are looked upon as wastes, are in fact the very support of the farms, which every good husbandman there will acknowledge. They are fine healthy downs, which are occupied with the farms as sheep-walks, the limits whereof are as well known by the shepherds, and the common consent of the farmers, as if bounded by hedges. The business done at Ilsley market will pretty clearly demonstrate them to be the nursery for sheep. It is the decided opinion of the principal farmers in that neighbourhood, that the plowing such downs indiscriminately, would, after the first seven years, be the utter ruin of the farms.""

Natural Herbage of Grass Lands; and other indigenous Plants of Berkshire.-P. 240. "For the following list of indigenous plants, the most ample, by far, that ever has been exhibited of this county, I am, in a great measure, indebted to the botanical researches and skill of Dr. Noeheden, of Windsor, and Mr. Bicheno, of Newbury. The contributions of the former I owe to the kind attentions of the Rev. Mr. Townshend, of Bray, to promote the object of my enquiries."

That list occupies more than forty pages of the work. The properties of some of the plants, and the habitats, or locations, of others, are noted.

HOPS.

HOPS.-P. 229. "Hops (the humulus lupulus) used to be cultivated formerly in considerable quantities in Berks, as I have ascertained from old books and records, and now grow naturally in the hedges in many places, a proof that the soil is well adapted for them, though at the present period there are few hop grounds, and those generally in small patches. The largest is at Faringdon, where ten acres have long been devoted to the culture of this plant. A ground of two acres is to be seen at Bisham, said not to be very productive. At Bradfield, and a few other places, hops are still cultivated; and formerly at Hurley they were raised in some quantities."

LIVESTOCK.

P. 372. "The live stock in this county is large, and of great importance; but except in sheep and hogs, it has no native or peculiar breeds."

On the folly of over-fatting Livestock.-The subjoined remarks, on this "modern improvement," are highly creditable to the writer of them.-P. 297. "There has, for some years been a prevailing rage, a ridiculous kind of competi tion among graziers, to produce the largest cattle and the fattest meat. Not only cows and oxen have been loaded with fat by unnatural food, but sheep have likewise been commended, not for the sweetness and tenderness of their flesh, but for their weight per quarter; though the tallowchandler was chiefly benefited by the excess to which fatting has been carried. To produce the greatest quantity of wholesome food for man in the least time, and at the smallest expence, is the only criterion of merit in feeding; it is the only way to individual profit or public benefit; and I am happy to find that this fact again begins to be admitted and acted on. Reason and truth may be clouded for a time, but they will burst out in brighter lustre than before."

HORSES.-P. 396. "The native Berkshire horses are of the common black race, very strong, and powerful, and rather of full proportions than tall. In their legs they are pretty short, in their bodies thick, and their whole figure indicates strength rather than activity. More, however, are bought in, from Northamptonshire, &c. as suckers, than are bred."

P. 397. Near the forest, and large commons, we find a poor starved breed, scarcely applicable to any useful purpose, but which, nevertheless, are kept by as many as have the power and ability, lest they should lose one iota of their privileges."

CATTLE. Breed.-P. 372. "The cattle which are

almost

almost universally adopted here are of the long horned, or common county breed, and differ in nothing from those of Warwickshire, Oxfordshire, and other neighbouring counties."

DAIRY.-History of the Berkshire Dairy.-P. 23. " In the western part of this vale the land is chiefly devoted to pasturage, and dairying is carried on to a considerable extent, and with great success. It appears from the Doomsday Survey, that the land was then appropriated to the At this period, in the parish of same purposes as now. Coleshill, consisting of 1,820 acres, only 10 are in culture; and in some other neighbouring parishes, particularly Buscot, Eaton Hastings, Coxwell, Shrivenham, and Uffington, full two-thirds are in grass."

Sizes of Dairies.-P. 377. "Some of the dairy farms are large. Mr. Gearing, one of the Earl of Radnor's tenants in Coleshill parish, keeps about one hundred cows; but this is the greatest number I believe in the possession of one person. The usual number is between twenty and sixty; the last is reckoned a very considerable dairy. About ninety acres of good grass land will carry twenty cows."

Cows of Berkshire.-P. 372. In the dairying district, many of the cows are brought out of Warwickshire, often with too little attention to their qualities as milkers."

P. 378. "Many calves are bred for stock; but suckling for the butcher is the prevailing practice."

Butter.-P. 374. "Much butter is sent to London. The best butter, or at least what is reputed as such, is made about Wytham, Radley, and other parishes on the Berkshire borders near Oxford, where the land is good, and yet cheese making is little followed. Fine butter, however, is made in most parts of the county."

Cheese.-P. 375. "In the dairying tract, properly so called, which lies at the western extremity of the Vale of White Horse, chiefly within the hundreds of Shrivenham and Faringdon, though partially extending to Ganfield and Wantage, very large quantities of checse are made during the summer; and here butter making is less an object, except when the cows are at hay or straw.

"The number of cows kept in the parishes of Shrivenham, Coleshill, Buscot, Eaton Hastings, Faringdon, Shellingford, Uffington, Compton, and Kingston Lisle, which are among the principal dairying parishes, from a pretty accurate inquiry, do not amount to fewer than 3,000; and it is probable that the whole number is little less than 5,000, within the compass of the four hundred specified."

"The cheese made here is chiefly of that kind known by the name of single Gloucester. From six to ten cheeses go

to a cwt.; usually eight, nine, or ten."

"The quantity made in the whole of the Berkshire dairy