The principal mineral water is at Cheltenham, which, for upwards of 30 years, has been much resorted to. Ac cording to the analysis of Dr Fothergill and other chemists, its component parts are Epsom and Glauber salts, a small portion of chalvbeate, and some fixed air. It is particularly efficacious in all disorders of the liver. See CHELTENHA,.I.
There are no very large estates in this county ; but the number of yeomen who possess freeholds is very great. About a fortieth part of the whole land is held under cor porations ; there is very little copyhold. The average size of farms is small, though there arc some large grazing farms in the vale. Before the injudicious rise in the rent of land, the average rent on the Coteswolds was, for ara blc 15s. for pasture 25s. per acre. In the vale, for arable 20s. fur pasture 30s. In the forest district, for arable 20s. for pasture 25s. per acre. Within the last cemury, more i than 90 acts of parliament have been passed for the nclu sure of waste and commonable lands in this county.
Of the implements of husbandry used in Gloucester shire, the waggon deserves particular notice, being, in the opinion of Mr Marshall, the best farm waggon in the king dom. Its most striking peculiarity is that of having a crook ed side-rail, bending archwise over the hind wheel ; the body is wide in proportion to its shallowness ;and the i wheels run very wile : its advantages therefore, in carry ing a top-load, are obvious. The old plough, with one wheel, but shortened in the beam, is mostly used on the Coteswolds; through the greater part of the vale, the old swing plough is retained. There arc but few thrashing machines in the county. A very useful cradle scythe used in the vale for cutting beans.
As the forest of Dean is still, comparatively speaking, a waste, the agriculture of Gloucestershire must be sought after in the other parts of the county. The vale of Glou cester is a rich vale district, equally abundant in grass and corn ; the Coteswold hills is an upland arable district ; and the vale of Berkley is a grassland dairy country. It is computed that there are about 300,000 acres under till age in Gloucestershire. The most striking practice with respect to the tillage land, is followed on the Coteswold hills, where the crops arc generally sown after one plow ing. Fallowing is practised on the strong vale lands. In
the open fields, below Gloucester, two crops and a fallow are the general practice ; and three crops and a fallow above that city. On the Coteswold hills turnips are sub stituted for a fallow, after which barley, grass for two years, wheat, and oats, pease or vetches. Wheat is drilled and planted in some parts of the vale lands; and is carefully howed while it is growing. The produce on the Cotes Avoids averages 15 bushels, and in the vale nearly double that quantity per acre. Barley forms an important crop in the Coteswolds, but is seldom sown on the strong lands of the vale. Oats are chiefly grown in the forest district. In the management of all these crops there is nothing par ticularly striking- or commendable; but in the entire man agement of the bean crop, Gloucestershire may afford a valuable lesson to almost every other part of the kingdom. Beans are principally the produce of the clay soils of the vale. In the ordinary practice of the district they are planted by women, and hoed by women and children, al ways twice, and sometimes thrice; they succeed wheat or barley. The ground being ploughed nine or ten inches deep, manure is seldom given. They are planted early in February, by setting pins either across or down the ridges. The quantity of seed is 21 or 3 bushels. The distance be tween the rows from 10 to 14 inches ; the distance in the rows about two inches ; the depth two inches. The pro duce varies from 20 to 40 bushels per acre. Pease are principally grown on the Coteswolds. Tares, both winter and spring, are grown in all parts of the county, and on all soils. Turnips are pretty extensively cultivated; they are seldom drilled, but always carefully hoed. Swedish turnips are mostly confined to the rich lands of the vale ; both kinds arc almost exclusively given to sheep. Rye is grown in abundance in that part of the forest district called the Ryclands, but scarcely any where else. Potatoes are par ticularly attended to in the southern parts of the county. The culture of flax and teasels has much declined within these late years.