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an acre, on the whole quantity of land; which sum will perhaps average the cultivated corn and grass land farms of Britain; and as there are thirty-nine millions of acres, these depredations amount to upwards of ten millions per annum."

Mr. M. may be assured that I do not insert, here, the above abridgement of his estimates, in ridicule; though the minuteness of the detail may excite an involuntary smile. In the mass, they exhibit a serious evil. I give them a place, here, to convey, to the minds of gentlemen of Mr. Middleton's profession, that "such things are." For I verily believe that but few of them, in estimating the value of tenanted estates, make any allowance, in rent, for the various depredations above set forth.

ARABLE CROPS.

Concerning this important branch of the rural art, we find very little, in the report under consideration, regarding the practice of the County whose name it bears, that can command particular mention, in this register; although the article, in the aggregate, is of considerable length. The matter it contains chiefly consists of didactic effusions, from the copious fund of agricultural lore, which would seem to have been stored up in the Reporter's own mind, previously to his survey of Middlesex. Some of them, on first sight, wear the semblance of superior worth. Few of them, however, will bear the test of mature examination. Such particulars of the section under view as I may judge, after due deliberation, will assimilate with the select materials of this work, I will incorporate with them; whether they arise out of the practice of Middlesex, or emanate from the writer's own sentiments on rural subjects. WHEAT.-Drilling.- Mr. Middleton's ideas regarding this infatuating operation, accord with my own, more than do those of any other public writer.

P. 170. "Future experiments, I believe, will determine the comparative merits of the drill and broadcast methods. of growing wheat, on light soils that are clean, in favour of the drill, owing to the single circumstance of earthing up the plants just before the shooting forth of the last set of roots."

P. 171 "On strong loams and clayey soils, however, if they are ever so clean, and on all lands that are foul with root-weeds, it does not admit of any argument to support the superiority of the broadcast over the drill. In the latter case, the drills cannot work; and in the former, the horse-hoes must be equally at a stand. The harrowing and rolling of strong land, aided by the usual

operation

operation of weeding, and, if needful, with top-dressings, will be found to promote the growth of the corn; whereas the horse-hoes in such a soil, in a dry season, would have so unsteady a motion, as to cut up part of the rows without being able to raise any mould towards earthing up the plants."

The growing Crop of Wheat.-P. 170. "After a frosty winter, the crowns of the roots of wheat are sometimes exposed for two or three inches in length above the mould; **in that case, turning sheep in after a moderate shower, and driving them about, will tread the wheat into the moist ground, where it will abide, and produce fresh roots."-An admirable thought.

Market for Wheat.-P. 177. "The farmers sell their wheat to mealmen, who manufacture it, and sell the flour to the bakers, and the pollard to the farmers and others, for the food of horses, hogs, &c."

BARLEY.-Quantity grown.-P. 180. "There are about 3800 acres of land annually sown with barley in this county, the greater part of which is sown after wheat."

Produce of Barley.-P. 183. "Produce-Varies from fifteen to. seventy-five bushels per acre. The average produce of the county is about four quarters of corn and two loads of straw per acre."

Market for Barley.-P. 184. "Much of the most ordinary barley is given to poultry: the rest is sold to the maltsters, except so much as is reserved for seed.

BEANS.-Quantity grown.-P. 188. "There are about 2800 acres of land annually cropped with beans in this county; and they are cultivated in the most clean and perfect manner."

The subjoined directions rank high among this writer's dictations.- Manure, Tillage, and Semination of Beans.P. 189. "The preparation for this crop should be as follows: early in.autumn lay the manure on, and immediately plough the land into ridgelets, of two feet six inches wide; in which state let it lie until the season for planting, when the seed may be dibbled in, one row of beans into the middle of each ridgelet, at the distance of about three inches from bean to bean. They should be immediately covered, which may be done by children, with a garden-rake or hoe; or, should the land be dry and crumbly, a horse and a bush harrow would do as well. In most places, it is advisable to set a boy with a rattle to frighten away the rooks, until the beans are up.

The distance between the rows will not prevent the crop from completely covering the ground, especially if

K 4

the

the land was manured for them, as they will branch out sideways, three or four stout stems from each root." (?)

In the established practice of Middlesex, the semination of beans appears, by Mr. M's report, to have been, at the time of reporting, similar to that of Glocestershire; namely, dibbling them in, across the ridges.-P. 190. "The women are paid 4d. a gallon for dibbling in the seed, which they perform with astonishing rapidity, along a line stretched across the ridges, leaving a space of fifteen inches between each row; the seed is covered by a bush harrow, drawn by horses who walk in the furrows."

Disposal of Beans.-P. 193. "All given to horses, except what are preserved for seed, and such as are podded while green, and sent to the London markets. When pigs are fed with beans, the meat becomes so hard as to make very ordinary pork, but good bacon. Also, it is supposed that the meal-men grind many horse-beans among wheat, to be manufactured into bread."

In Norfolk, it is well known that white peas are frequently ground, by flour makers, with wheat. This is the first time I have met with any intimation of beans being used in a similar way.

PEAS. Quantity grown.-P. 193. "There are about 3000 acres of land annually cropped with peas in this county; they are much on the increase, and are cultivated in the most clean and garden-like manner."

Succession and Tillage for Peas.-P. 193. "On upwards of 2000 acres they succeed a clean crop of beans: in which case, the bean stubble is about January, and during every dry time till March, ploughed up with a thin furrow, and soon afterwards re-ploughed a full depth. The water-furrows are kept open, and the land remains in this state till seed-time."

Consumption of Peas.-P. 196. "About one-third of them are eaten by human beings, and the rest by hogs."

POTATOES.-P. 197." Most of the farmers in this county, and such of the cottagers who have gardens, grow potatoes for their own use, but few or none for sale."

TURNEPS-Succession.-P. 207. "In this county, there is no such thing as turnip-fallow:" (?) "the land invariably produces a crop in the spring, before the preparation for turnips."

Culture and Market of Turneps.-P. 204. "The broadcast method of growing turnips is the only one made use of in this county. They are invariably twice hoed by hand, and are mostly consumed by cows, whose owners

Generally of tares, early peas, or rye.-J. M.”

buy

buy them growing in the fields, at every distance short of twelve or thirteen miles from London, at prices varying from five to ten guineas per acre, according to the length of carriage and quantity of the crop. The cow-keepers are at the expence of pulling them up, loading and carting them home, which is generally done in waggons drawn by six stout horses, in loads, that, for their largeness, surprise every beholder."

CULTIVATED HERBAGE.-Rye.-P. 179. “There are a few acres of rye grown on many farms of the more sandy nature in this county, for spring green feed."

Tares.-P. 198. "Many of the farmers in this county grow a few acres of tares, and the culture of them is extended every year, from the circumstance of their importance becoming better understood. It is a considerable degree of gratification to me, to have been the first who sowed them on a large scale, and publicly recommended them to the notice of farmers, as highly deserving to be introduced into a regular rotation of crops."

This is speaking of tare herbage as something new, in Middlesex! Whereas, in the County of Surrey, not more than ten miles from the confine of Middlesex, nor above three or four from the Reporter's "country residence," both rye and tares have been grown, mixed as well as separately, by professional farmers, for "green meat,”— during the last half century. The former for cows, as affording not only much, but sweet, milk; the latter for cart horses*.

Clover. Disposal.-P. 230. "Most of it is sold and delivered in London for the support of draught horses; and it is the general opinion, that it is more nourishing than any other bay, except sainfoin, and sells at about fifteen shillings a ton higher than meadow hay."

Sainfoin.-Disposal.-P. 233. "Sainfoin, is not grown in any part of this county; but the superior value of its hay is well known in the London markets: it produces at least a guinea a ton more than meadow hay equally well cured. It is brought from the chalk-hills of Surrey and Kent."

GRASS LAND.

The opening of this Reporter's chapter, "Grass," is altogether incomprehensible to ordinary understandings.

P. 219.

* For the culture of tare herbage; and a successful method of making it into bay-see my Minutes of Agriculture, in Surrey;-those relating to tare herbage being written in 1775 and 1776; when tares and rye were, there, ordinary crops in husbandry,

P. 219."Natural meadows are no where to be found, as all grass land which is in a state of nature, or uncultivated, is universally depastured.

"Natural pastures are, of course, the most wretched of all grass land; and, in this county, are only to be met with in commons."

Admitting that the world is natural,-that the atmosphere which involves it is natural,-that mountains and valleys are natural, and that rivers and the alluvial lands they have every where formed are natural,-surely, the herbage with which such lands have been covered, without the help of man,-some of them, possibly, before the being man set foot on the island,-ought to be deemed natural.

The author of the Report of Middlesex, however, arranges the river-formed grass lands of that County, under a conspicuous head (across the page)-ycleped "CULTIVATED MEADOWS and PASTURES"!! And, under that monstrous head, proceeds to describe them;-with satisfactory intelligence, and interesting information.

Border of the Lea.-P. 219. "There is some excellent grass land on the Middlesex side of this river, lying in the parishes of Enfield, Edmonton, Tottenham, &c. containing about one thousand acres; most of which is divided, by land marks, among a great number of proprietors, in pieces containing from a rood to four or five acres each. The meadows are opened for the reception of the cattle of every inhabitant of those parishes, from the 12th of August in every year, until the 5th of April in the following year. On the latter day the cattle are taken off; and soon afterwards the ground is prepared for a crop of hay, which it yields in July.

"This tract of land is occasionally flooded every winter; and also once in two or three years, in the summer, by water impregnated with manure, brought from the welldressed and chalky lands of Hertfordshire. If these occasional floods were made to pass off in a few days, or so soon as they had deposited their enriching particles on the land, they would promote a very high degree of fertility; but unfortunately, the drainage is so interrupted from Stratford-le-bow to the Thames, that the water is detained much too long on the land; and, owing to the very nature of common meadows and pastures, the sewers, ditches, and drains, are so shamefully neglected, that the soil is chilled, the best grasses destroyed, and a worthless herbage substituted in their place.

"These meadows are said to produce about a ton of ordinary hay per acre, and are lett for about twenty-five shillings on an average. If they were inclosed and em

banked,

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