G‘LoUoEs'_rEn many are fed for distant markets, many reared and kept for dairy purposes. The rich grazing tract of the Vale of Berkeley is said to produce annually 1200 tons of the famous double Gloucester cheeses, and the Vale in general has long been celebrated for its cheese and butter. The Vale of Gloucester is tl1e chief corn district. Its aspect is generally pastoral, characterized by grass—lands hemmed in with hedgerows and hedgerow timber, and dotted with apples, pears, and orchard fruit as if to compensate for the comparative barrenness of the Coteswolds. The Vale, from its position and climate, is subject to violent storms of wind and rain. Statistics of Agriculture for Glouccstcr.shz're as rcturnal on 4th o/"Juno 1878. Total area .................................................. .. 804,977 acres. Total acreage under crops, bare fallow, and grass..... 648,795 ,, Corn crops (nearly one-half wheat and one-fourth barley) ...................................................... .. 172,515 ,, Green crops (about two-thirds turnips and swe(les)... 62,679 ,, Grasses under rotation . ................................... .. 94,279 ,, Perrnanent pasturage ...................................... .. 307,026 ,, Bare aml fallow .......................................... 12,263 ,, Flax and hops .............................................. .. 33 ,, Lire Stock. Horses ................................................................. .. 25,725 Cattle ................................................................. .. 107,236 Sheep .................................................................. .. 416,853 Pigs ................................................................... .. 69,331 According to the Owners and Heritages Return 1872-73, the county was divided among 37,705 proprietors, holding land whose acreage was 7 33,640, and whose gross esti- mated rental was £2,556,543. The estimated extent of commons and waste lands was 7429 acres. Of the owners 76 per cent. possessed less than one acre, and the average value all over was £3, 8s. 112d. There were 10 proprie- tors who possessed upwards of 5000 acres, viz. :—Lord Fitzhardinge, 18,204; Duke of Beaufort, 10,610; Lord Sherborne, 15,773 ; Earl Bathurst, 9907 ; Crown Pro- perty, 9575; ll. S. Holford (Weston Birt). 9332; Thomas W. C. Master (Cirencester), 7226 ; Earl Eldon (Eneomb), 6664; Lord Sudeley (Winehcomb), 6620; Earl Ducie, 5193. Forest Disz‘n'r't.—'l‘l1e surface of this district is agree- ably undulating to the height of from 120 to 1000 feet, and its sandy peat soil renders it most suitable for the growth of timber, which is the cause of its having been a royal forest from time immemorial. John Evelyn records that the com- manders of the Armada had orders not to leave in it a tree standing. In the reign of Charles I. the Forest contained 105,537 trees, and, straitened for money, he granted it to Sir John Wyntour for £10,000, and a fee farm rent of £2000. The grant was cancelled by Cromwell; but at the Restoration only 30,000 were left, and Wyntour, having got another grant, destroyed all but 200 trees fit for navy timber. In 1680 an Act was passed to enclose 11,000 acres and plant with oak and beech for supply of the dockyards ; and the present forest, though not containing very many gigantic oaks, has six “walks” covered with timber in various stages of growth. The two finest oaks of the Forest are a headless giant 45 feet in girth just out- side the village of Newland, to the left of the road from Coleford to llonmouth, and “Jack of the Yat,” with 19 feet of girth, on the right of the roadside from Coleford to .Iitcheldean.1 1 The Forest is locally governed by two crown-appointed deputy gavellers to superintend the woods and mines, and four verderers ('lCt'lell. by the freeholders, whose office, since the extennination of the «leer in 1850, is almost purely honorar_v. From time immemorial all persons born in the hundred of St B1-iavel's, who have worked a year and a day in a coal mine, become “free miners,” and may work coal in any part of the Forest not previously occupied. At the present time the l~‘orcst laws are administered at the Speeelrllouse l-y the queen’s oflicers and the free miners. 689 Bo(a2zy.—.Tl1e flora of the county, representing that of the two mam hydrographical areas of the kingdom and of various geological formations, is extremely rich. Its dis- tinct forms of phanerogams number more than half the British flora. But there is little bog land in the county, and no true sea coast. Hence certain gaps in the list of indigenous plants. There are only some 25 species of ferns; but the rare flowers mentioned below are worthy of note as indigenous? The quantity of mistletoe on the numerous apple trees in the cider orchards of the Vale is another botanical feature of the county, a parasite occurring on other trees also, notably on the Badham Court oak, Sedbury Park, Chepstow, and on the Frampton—on—SeVern oak. .Tl1e elm, used at Bristol for shipbuilding, the willow, and the maple form the chief hedge timber of the Vale, while in the Forest some fine hollies, 6 feet round, are found amongst the oaks. The Spanish chestnut at Tort- worth, Pitf’s elm, Boddington, near Cheltenham, and the Lassington oak are the most notable trees of the county. Mustard was once much cultivated in the Vale, “ few houses being without a cannon ball and bowl in which the seeds were bruised” (see Rudge’s General Views of A {/riculture of Gloucester, London, 180'/).3 C'ommmn'catz'on and Trade.—Gloueestershire is, in virtue of its two city ports, Bristol and Gloucester, a maritime county. The approach to the first is by the Somerset Avon, to the second by the Severn, or, more strictly, by the Gloucester and Berkeley canal, for which, owing to the dangerous navigation of the Severn, an Act was obtained in 1793, though the works were not corri- pleted and opened for traffic till 1827. They consisted of a small tidal basin and lock at Sharpness Point, on the Severn, near Berkeley, connecting the estuary of the river by a ship canal 16 miles long with the city of Gloucester, where there was a suitable discharging dock, and where the canal was again connected with the river Severn by a lock. The gradual extension of the trade necessitated a corresponding extension of the works, and in 1869 a new and enlarged entrance, half a mile further down the river, was projected, with suitable discharging and repairing docks, which last form one large sheet of water on the same level as the old canal connecting them also with G10uC€St(3I'. These were com- pleted and opened in 1874. Through the river Severn from Glou- cester to Worcester and Stourport the port is brought into direct communication with the great system of internal canals throughout the kingdom, and both at Sharpness docks and Gloucester is in direct communication with the Midland and Great Western rail- way systems. The following are the trade statistics of the year ending September 25, 1878. Tons. Tons. Foreign imports ........................................ .. 428,532 Coasting .............................................. .. 105,224 533,756 Foreign exports ........................................ .. 51,047 Coasting ............................ .................. .. 112,176 -——— 163,223 Total traflic .................................. .. 696,979 Of the foreign imports 253,643 tons, amounting to about 1,200,000 quarters, were grain and seed. The port is well situated fora com port, its com warehouses at Sharpness accommodating 100,000 quarters, and those at Gloucester about 130,000 quarters. The new works at Sharpness will accommodate vessels up to 2500 tons burden. The Severn Bridge railway—5 miles in 1cngth——commences at Lydney by a junction with the Great 'estcrn Railway and the Severn and Wye railway, crosses the Severn at Purton Passage, and terminates at the Berkeley new docks by a junction with the Midland, thus forming a long-needed connexion between the two sides of the river, and shortening the distances from South “'ales to London by 14 miles, and from South 'ales to Bristol by 20. 9 Anemone Pulsatilla; A/-abis stricta ; Tlzlaspi peafolicztztm ; Hut- clmzsia petrcca ; I’ol_i/gala oa'_1/ptcra and calcwrea; C'c-rastium palm-ilum; Lotus angustzssizmls; Pg-rus pi-n-natr_'fida; Epilobium ltmceolat-um; Sedum rzqzestre; T rinia 7:1(l_qar1's; Limnanthemlmt arymphtvoidcs; l'crom'ca Izybricltt. ; Orobrmclze Ilcderte ; C3/azoglossmn mo-ntanmn ; L'tr2'cula-ria we;/Iccta; Daplme Jlczercmn; Bzzzcus serizpcrrircrzs; Ce- phala-ntlzera rzibra ; Galrmthzls m'ral1's. 3 AutIzorit2'es.—Swete’s Flora 1}rz'stol2'cnsz's, 1854; Bllckmalfs Botany of Chcltclzlzam, 1844; Mai-slral1’s Rural Economy of Glouces- tcrslzirc, 1789: H. G. 1'icholl’s Forest of I)a:a;z, 1858; and MS. Floras of Gloucestershirc, by .Iessrs Harker and Boulgeiéi 8
- . — 7 .