Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume I.djvu/35

 occur, the bean seems to be the favourite seed of the husbandman; which is here dibbled or set by hand in rows, twelve inches distant from each other, and hoed and cleaned with a vigilance and care that place the Glocestershire farmers high on the list of admirable agriculturists. Best calculated for dairy farming, the land of this county for many miles is chiefly applied to this purpose; and the profits which accrue from it, may be best collected from the prodigious quantity of cheese manufactured in it, which is said to amount to between seven and eight thousand tons annually.

The advantages of this part of Glocestershire are greatly increased by the canal, which crosses the road at right angles near the eighth mile-stone from Glocester, and connects the Severn with the interior of the county; a communication that enables the manufacturers and dyers of the clothing country to import at a trifling expence the large quantities of coals consumed in their works, as well as to convey their cloths at a reasonable rate to the shore of the Severn, to be shipped for the foreign market. Begun forty years ago, when the advantages resulting from speculations of this nature were not so well ascertained as at present, the Stroud canal only proceeded a few miles towards the Severn, the place of its destination, and was