summer months, is rank, and not only very apt to rot sheep*, but is productive of a peculiar distemper among the larger cattle called in the neighbourhood the moor-evil. The cottager appears to reap the greatest benefit from Otmoor. He turns out little except geese; and the coarse, aquatic, sward of this waste is well suited to the wants and constitution of his flock. The disgusting effluvia arising from the weedy recesses of this large tract would seem likely to tend much towards the injury of human health; yet it does not appear that intermittents are nearly so frequent in the vicinage as might be apprehended. Some judicious individuals projected, a few years back, the inclosure of Otmoor; but the plan met with much local opposition, and was at length abandoned.

In the purlieus of Whichwood Forest there are extensive tracts of waste ground, the commonage of which is confined, by right, to horses and sheep; but the instances of illegal assumption are numerous, and cattle of almost every description may be seen nearly in every part. The soil of the forest is generally either the red loam, or the stonebrash so frequent in the county.

The other commons of Oxfordshire are chiefly to be found among the Chiltern hills, in districts which, though denuded, are too steep for the plough; and in the northern part of the county, where there are many ranges of Down-land appropriated to the pasturage of young cattle, or (in some few instances) to that of oxen used for the purpose of tillage.

The system of inclosing has been encouraged, as was before observed, to a considerable extent. The inclosures in the first forty years of his present majesty's reign amounted in number to forty-one, and in quantity of land to 68,480 acres ↑.

Since

which

• An instance is mentioned in Young's Agricultural Survey of one farmer who turned seventeen score of sheep to graze on this common, the whole of which he lost by the rot, except three. In the same work it is said that cattle benefit about twenty shillings per head (independent of the hazard of loss through disease) by a summer's pasturage.

Young, p. 88.

which the instances of inclosure have been numerous. The ad vantages are unequivocal. The landlord has gained an increase of rent, nearly in the proportion of two to one. The food raised for man is considerably greater *, and the farmer has not only obtained an improvement of circumstances, but a capacity for good management, and a general enlargement of idea.

Oxfordshire does not possess much to interest the examiner, in the department of LIVE STOCK, as it has no peculiar breed of its own, and has not adopted any particular race with so much preference as to cause it to form a leading feature in the rural œconomics of the county. Where a farm is under the dairy-system, it has been remarked, that the long-horned cows are generally most esteemed: these are frequently brought from Leicestershire. The Yorkshire, the Herefordshire, and various crosses are also occasionally found. In regard to horses, it may be observed, that

the

The following statement, in the Agricultural Survey, of the increase and decrease resulting from inclosure in several parishes, appears interesting:

the practice prevails in many districts of not suffering them to remain in the stables at night. Where the farmers are in the habit of soiling their horses, sainfoin is considered highly preferable to clover. The Berkshire breed of sheep was formerly the most favoured; but, latterly, the South Downs have risen into much esteem, and seem to be gradually spreading over the whole county. The farms of Oxfordshire are usually well stocked with sheep *. The Berkshire hogs are the kind most commonly seen; and, while mentioning this animal, it may be proper to observe, that many boars are fed in the neighbourhood of Oxford for the purpose of making brawn, an article of much request in that city. One experimental cultivator encourages the breed of domestic rabbits to a considerable extent. He has some hundreds of stock, and finds that they produce sufficient manure for twenty-six acres annually.

. Dr. Plot is too credulous a writer to be implicitly accepted as authority, but his mention of sheep, in the "Natural History of Oxfordshire," is, at any rate, deserving of observation in a note :-" Of four footed beasts that chew the cud they have a sort of sheep esteemed in this country for their constantly bearing two lambs at a time; whence they have obtained the name (though somewhat an improper one) of double ewes. But there are much stranger sheep, though, perhaps, not so profitable, at Ricot, in the park of Lord Norreys, brought hither from some other parts of England and Wales, but now breeding here: of which some of them at first had six or eight horns a-piece! but the number, upon mixture of their generation with other sheep, is since diminished. However, there remain still two of them with very strange heads, having each four horns; one of them with two larger ones issuing from the top of its head, bending forwards, and two side ones coming out from under its ears, and bending round towards its mouth; and the other having two large horns standing pretty upright on its head, and two side ones proceeding from under the ears, like the former, and bending round to the cheeks, into which they would grow (and so in the whole kind) were they not prevented by being timely cut off. And as these are remarkable for their many horns, there was another sheep once there that excelled all the rest in its being a unicorn: having a single horn growing almost in the middle of its forehead, twenty-one inches long." The head of this latter prodigy Dr. Plot informs us was preserved at Ricot at the time of his writing, and there are several plates in the Natural History illustrative of this singular "Breed."

annually. He supposes that the carcase of this little animal, which, is so injurious to agriculture when in a wild state, repays the expense of feeding, and the manure is of a very desirable description.

WOODS, PLANTATIONS, &c.

Camden describes the woods of Oxfordshire as forming one of the chief boasts of the county; and Plot admits, that anciently such might have been the fact, but says that, "owing to the late unhappy wars," (the civil contests in the reign of Charles I.) "wood has become so scarce, that it is a common thing to sell it by weight; and not only at Oxford, but in many other places in the northern parts of the shire, where, if brought to Mercat, it is ordinarily sold for about one shilling the hundred; but, if remote from a great town, it may be had for sevenpence." This seems a very extraordinary circumstance, and can be only accounted for by the want, at that period, of inland coals, which are now so plentifully introduced to the county. Faggot-wood may, at this time, be purchased in most parts of Oxfordshire for twelve shillings the hundred faggots, and grubbed wood (or roots) for about twenty-one shillings the waggon load. Except in the very northern districts, and omitting the article of oak, Oxfordshire may at present be certainly termed a well-wooded county.

The whole of the Chiltern division abounds in beech, and has been supposed by some, with much appearance of truth, to form a part of that great" forest," described by Leland, as stretching 120 miles westward from the border of Kent. "The beech woods of Oxfordshire," says Mr. Davis, in his Original Report *, "consist of trees growing on their own stems, produced by the falling of the beech mast, as very little is permitted to grow on the old stools, which are generally grubbed up. They are drawn occasionally,

This Report is so truly valuable, that those who have had an opportunity of inspecting it must feel cause to regret that the Board did not publish it at length.

9

sionally, being never felled all at once, except for the purpose of converting the land into tillage, which has been much practised of late years. It requires some judgment to thin these woods so that the present stock may not hang too much over the seedlings, at the same time that, in a south aspect, an injury may take place by exposing the soil too much to the sun; for it is to be observed, that the north side of a hill will produce a better growth of beech than the south side. The succession of young trees in beech wood is much injured by admitting sheep, or other cattle, into them; and, though it is observed by some that sheep do no damage in winter, when the leaf is off, yet it is the opinion of others, that the wool which is left hanging on the young stock is prejudicial to its growth, even supposing, what is doubtful, that the sheep do not crop them. There are some oak and ash trees in these woods, dispersed among the beech, which have sprung up in places where the seeds have dropped, or been carried by birds. These seldom grow to any great bulk, though sometimes to great lengths, but they are not very numerous."

In the Forest of Whichwood the oak, the ash, the beech, and elm, are intermixed. Of the first most noble and beneficial tree a majority is seen; but, though the oaks of Whichwood are numerous and thriving, there are not many which are likely to be ready, in at least, the next half century for naval use. The ash seems a favourite with the soil, and is both abundant and flourishing. Beech is frequent, but the elm is comparatively seldom found. The coppices of Whichwood Forest are its most profitable production. Of these there are thirty-four; eighteen of which belong to the king, twelve to the Duke of Marlborough, and four to certain individuals. The coppice-wood belonging to his Majesty is usually cut at eighteen years' growth, and that appertaining to the Duke at twenty-one. The emolument derived from each acre is about six shillings per annum. The open part of the forest produces nothing but brush-fuel, (which, though meagre, is still found useful by the poor) and food for the deer, which are exceedingly numerous. When a coppice is cnt, the

VOL. XII.