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dealers are, for the most part, the refuse of other employments; possessing neither character, decency of manners, nor cleanliness."-This information I conceive to be incorrect.

"The same person suggests, as a remedy for these abuses, that it would be highly proper for every retail milk-dealer to be obliged to take out an annual license from the magistrates: which license should be granted only to such as could produce a certificate of good conduct, signed by the cowkeeper, and a certain number of their customers; and also on their being sworn to sell the milk pure and unadulterated:"-at, of course, an advanced price.-This would seem to be a practicable idea; and might become a valuable regulation.

Butter Dairy.-P. 338. "There is not, perhaps, a county in the kingdom, where a smaller quantity of this article is made, and certainly not any, where a greater quantity is consumed, than in Middlesex.

"As the farmers of this county employ their cows, for the most part, in suckling, the very small quantity of butter they make is principally for their own consumption; and what is made at the dairies of noblemen and gentlemen is, of course, intended solely for the use of their respective families so that the astonishing consumption of this arti cle in the metropolis and its environs, is almost entirely supplied from those counties where the dairy is more the object of the farmer; and from the sister kingdom."

The Reporter proceeds to describe the manner in which the Metropolis is supplied with this favorite luxury of its native inhabitants. His statement, however, is not well drawn up. The great supply of butter which is sent in, from Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Bedfordshire, under the name of "lump butter," and with which the middle classes of society in London are principally furnished, is not included in it. Fresh butter, we are told (p. 338.) comes from Norfolk, and salt butter from Cambridgeshire.

Fatting Cattle.-P. 327. "The wash of malt distilleries, which had for a considerable time been solely used for the purpose of fattening hogs, has of late years been applied to the fattening of oxen on a very extensive scale, both in this county and in Surrey. Mr. Liptrap, of Whitechapel, has fattened many beasts in this manner; and at a single house in Battersea (Surrey), stalls have been erected to accommodate 500 at a time. They have a little hay or straw given them once a day, to enable them to chew the cud; they both stand and lie on a framing (a kind of trellis) of woodwork, raised a little above the pavement, and are not allowed straw, or any substitute for it, for bedding. This

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beneficial practice is extending itself very much, and is, as well as the feeding of hogs by the same means, a very considerable improvement, and must be of great advantage to the community."

SHEEP.-Breed.-P. 345. " There is not any particular breed of sheep distinguished from the rest, as exclusively belonging to the county. Indeed the farmers of Middlesex employ their land more profitably, than could be done by breeding and rearing sheep to any greater age than to be slaughtered either as house or grass lambs."

Purchase and Number kept.-P. 345. "The farmers buy their sheep at the fairs in Wiltshire and Hampshire, and of the jobbers of west-country sheep at fairs within the county. The flocks differ in number, in proportion to the right of common appertaining to the respective farms.'

P. 346. "Sheep are kept in this county all the year round, only where there are common rights sufficient to support them from Candlemas till the after-grass is ready to receive them.

"On the commons above Riselip and Pinner, there are many kept, and folded on the arable land."

Diseases of Sheep.-The following suggestions appear to be worthy of attention.-P. 349. "Sheep that have been reared and constantly pastured on chalk-hills, such as the south and west country downs, are free from the rot so long as they are continued in those situations. I have heard the same remarked of salt marshes, and that sheep with diseased livers, brought from rotting gound, heal and become fat in these marshes. Rotten sheep have in many instances been cured by feeding on the herbage growing in a thin soil on limestone rock.

"Reasoning on these premises, I am inclined to think that on all soils strongly calcarious, and properly drained, sheep will continue sound.

"It seems to be highly probable, that the most rotting soil may be cured of that defect, after it is well drained, by the addition of a proper quantity of calcarious matter; such as either lime, chalk, or marl."

HOUSE LAMB.-Nearly the same observation may be offered, concerning Mr. Middleton's account of producing fat lambs, in winter, as that which I have made on Mr. Foot's, p. 110, aforegoing. The practice, conducted on a large scale, is local. In the neighbourhood of the Metropolis, it may be considered as a branch of business, to which belongs many nice points of management; and much experience is required to render it profitable. A few un

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digested particulars, even if accurately set down by a practitioner, would be of little value*.

POULTRY.-Turkies.-N. p. 359. "It is now found of the greatest use, when young turkies come too early, or when the season is cold, to bathe them every morning in cold water, for eight or ten days, and to give them a peppercorn every day."

BEES.-P. 379." There are no bees of any consequence kept in the county. We rarely see a hive at a farm-house, and perhaps not ten cottages in the county have any."

PROFIT of FARMING.-P. 83. "The Profits of farming, under the old rotation of two crops of corn and a fallow, have seldom afforded more than a mere subsistence to the farmer, and the means of establishing his children to run the same course. But even this is no proof against the profits of farming at per cent. on the capital employed, which is generally so small a sum, that the foregoing produce may be a large per centage, and with sedulous attention this has been the fact, as the accounts of particular families, produced to me, have demonstrated a profit of 32 per cent. per ann. on the sum employed, for thirty-five years in succession.† Indeed it seems to be evident, that a man who employs only 500l. and with it brings up a large family, and places them in a situation equal to his own, while himself retires with an easy fortune, could not have done it with a less return."

P. 84. "This account shall be closed with the following statement of the produce and expence of 150 acres of good grass land, at eight miles distance from St. James's hay

market.

"Hedge-rows, and waste of the farm are 20 acres; the mowing ground is 130, which yields at one cutting 260 loads of hay, and which have been sold for five or six years to average 51. is

"The after feed sold for

"Total produce per annum

"Total expences....

"Remains, for rent, and attention

....

£.

1300

65

1365"

620

£745

which is nearly equivalent to 57. an acre. Suppose the

party

* In the octavo edition of my Minutes of Agriculture in Surrey, I

have attempted to convey the rationale of the practice.

See the head, Rent, p. 125, aforegoing, on this topic.

party to pay 31. an acre rent, it will leave 21. which, on 150 acres, is 300l. a year profit, or 40 per cent. upon the capital employed."

This, I must not refrain from saying, is, in my opinion, deviating more widely, on one side of the true line of percentage, than ten percent. (including interest on capital) is on the other.

For discussions on this topic, see NORTHERN DEPARTMENT-County of Northumberland; and EASTERN DEPARTMENT-County of Suffolk.

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SOUTH ESSEX.

IN REVIEWING the Reports from the EASTERN DEPART

MENT, I examined those from Essex; so far as its lands and their culture resemble those of Suffolk, and may be properly considered as a continuation of the soil and management of that County.

The principal line which I then drew, as the right boundary between the eastern and the southern Departments, were the ESTUARY of the BLACKWATER RIVER, Continuing the line of separation,-agreeably to the nature of the soils, and the established plan of management,-by MALDEN, DUNMOW, and SAFFRON WALDEN, to the confine of Cambridgeshire.-That portion of the County I named Northeast Essex; and assigned the remainder of it to the SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT*.

SOUTH ESSEX naturally separates into three Divisions, or DISTRICTS; namely, 1. The Forest and Dairy District; which occupies the southwest quarter of the County, bordering on Middlesex. 2. The Vale Lands of Essex; which fill the more central parts. And 3. The Marsh Lands, or "Hundreds of Essex;" which form the southeastern quarter; accompanying the northern bank of the Thames to near the Metropolis; whose more immediate environs form the lower extreme of the Vale of London.

Four distinct Reports have been sent in to the Board, from the County of Essex; namely, the "original Report," by Messrs. GRIGG;-the second original (in the 4to form with broad margins, and has not been "reprinted,"-of course not published), by Mr. VANCOUVER ;—the third, by the late Mr. HOWLETT (not printed);-the last, by the Secretary of the Board,-who has incorporated much of Mr. Howlett's MS. (it would seem) and some of Mr. Vancouver's remarks, with his own:-so forming two bulky octavo volumes.

"GENERAL

*My motives, for this division of the County, may be seen in the EASTERN DEPARTMENT; article, Northeast Essex.

The northwest corner of Essex assimilates, in soil and management, with Hertfordshire,

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