Book I. 



agHiculture of surrey. 



1083 



sameness, regularity, order, science, success, and the wealthiest farmers in Northum!)er- 

 land. T{ie geology and minerals of the kingdom are most ably indicated in Smith' t 

 Geological Map of England, IVales, and part (} Scotland, 1815. Smith's County Geolo- 

 gical Maps, 1819/0 1824; and Smith's Geological Table of Brilish Organised Fossils, 1819. 

 These v/orks are of the greatest importance to landed proprietors. 



6992. MIDDLESEX is part of the north side of a vale watered by the Thames, and contains 179 200 

 acres, exhibiting a great variety of agriculture. {Mkldleton's Survey, 1806. Marshal's Review, 1818.)' 



1. Geographical State and Circumstances. 

 Climate. Healthy ; warmer near London, from the fires 

 kept there, which consume 800,000 chaldrons of coals annu- 



-barred, and of oak ; enclosures too 



and bank ; gates mostlj fiv 

 numerous. 



7. Arable Land. 

 About 14,000 acres ; wretchedly managed, ploughed with 



teams of three or four horses ; rotation generally fallow, wheat, 



8. Grass Lands. 

 Meadows better managed ; hay-making good. 



9. Gardens and Orchards. 



About 1500 acres, producing 75,000/. 



ally ; stationary winds from the S. W. and N.E. those from the 



S. W. blow 6-1'iths of the year, N. B. 8.12ths. Greatest falls 



of rain from a few points VV. ot S. and are of the longer con- 

 tinuance when the wind has passed through the east to 



the south. In spring, frost in the hollows, when none on the 



hills, thermometer has been as high as 83", and as low as G" 



below zero. 



Soil. By long continued manuring, the surface soil almost 



every where looks like loam. Sand and gravel on ilampstead 



Hill. Loamy sand from Hounslow to Colnbrock. Sandy 



loam on west side of Hanwell and Hounslow. Strong loam 



about Ryslip, Pinner, Harrow, and South Mimms ; loamy clay 



between Uxbridge Common and Harefield. Clay of the most 



adhesive and ungrateful kind about Hendon and Highwood 



Hill ; peat from Hickmansworth to Staines, on a substratum of 



the gravel of flints, fliarsh land or rich loam deposited from 

 still water in the Jsle of Dogs and on the Lea and Coin. 



Surface. Gently waving ; highest towards the north. Hamp- 

 stead 400 feet above the level of the sea. 0)ne mile from 

 Jxjndon on the King^land Road, the surface ot upwards of 



1000 acres is lowered at an average five feet from the brick 

 earth dug out, which of ordinary quality has produced 4000.'. 

 per acre; and when marly, for malms or white bricks, 5iO,000/. 

 per acre. Brick earth formerly 100/. \>eT acre, now 500/. per 

 acre. An acre at f(jur feet deep, yields four millions of bricks. 

 Mineral H rata. 1. Cultivated surface, "i. Gravel of flints. 

 5 or 10 feet in thickness. 3. Lead or blue clay, 200 or 300 feet 

 in depth. 4. Marine sediment, 3 or 4 feet in"deuth. 5. Loose 

 and, gravel, and water, the latter arising in such quantities as 

 to prevent digging deeper. 



Ifa/er. Abundant ami excellent. The Thames, from Oxford to 

 Maidenhead,f3lls about 24 feet in ten miles ; from JMaidenhead 

 to Chertsey Bridge, 19 feet in ten miles ; thence to Mortlake, 

 13 feet per ten miles ; and to London, one foot per mile ; from 

 London the fall diminishes till it is lost in the sea. Tide 

 -flows twenty-three miles up the Thames. Spring water 

 found at various depths, from 5 to 300 feet ; the latter, the depth 

 of Paddington. 



Mineral waters jtt East Acton, Ilampstead, and Bagnigge- 

 wells : chalybeates little used. 



Fiih caught in the Tliames. Sturgeon, salmon, tench, barbel, 

 roach, dace, chub, bream, gudgeon, ruffe, bleak, eels, smelts, 

 and flounders. 

 a. State of Properttf. 



Sstatet and their management. Generally under the care of 

 attornies, and badly managed. 



Tenure!. Much freehold, considerable extent of copyhold, 

 ome church, college, and corporation land. 



3. Buildings. 



Homes nfproptirtort. Numerous, splendid, commodious. 

 Farm-houses, offices, repairs. Oldest built with timber lathed 



and plastered, roofs thatched ; erected piecemeal ; situated in 

 Tillages, sides of lanes, and near large ponds. Those built within 

 the present century, of brick, and covered with tiles. Farmery 

 of Sutton Court, Chiswick, Wickgreen, and Isleworlh, 

 models of their kind. Very few buildings required on hapf farms. 

 Cottages, brick and tile"d, and generally in villages; formerly 

 with right of common, now done away by enclosures. 



4. Mode of Occupation. 



Size of farms. Generally smalj, compared with other coun- 

 ties; three cow-farms near town, from 500 to 600 acres each, 

 rented at from 2 to 5000/. each. Many of 200/. ; average of 

 county 100/. 



Character of the fanners. Four classes. 1. Cow keepers, 



fardeners, and nurserymen. 2. Amateur farmers of fortune. 

 . Amateur farmers, who have left other pursuiu. 4. Com- 

 mercial or professional farmers, equal in number to half the 

 others. 



Rural artificers. Bad; impossible to get any agricultural 

 implement or machine made on agood principle by the country 

 artificers ; but able mechanics in London ; Alacdougal, Cook, 

 Snowden, and especially Weir, a Northumberland man, and 

 practically acquainted with agriculture. 



Rent paid in money, sometimes a small part in butter and 

 cream at fixed prices. Varies from 10*. to 10/. per acre, or 

 higher for nurseries. 



Tilhet in many places take.i in kind, in some compounded 

 foi annually, or for a fixed period. 



Poor, and the rates Ji/r their relief, average 3. C>d. per acre. 



Leases, general. Often for fourteen and twenty -one years 

 drawn up by lawyers " a comi>osiUon of obsolete unintelligible 

 covenants." 



Expense and profit. Expenses on entering a farm, greater 

 than in distant places : profits seldom more than a mere 

 subsistence to the farmer. 



5. Implements. 

 All bati ; plough barbarous ; threshing mills rare. 



6. Enclosing. 

 Now mostly 'enclored. Nineteen commons enclosed from 



1800 to 1806, contaming 20,000 acres and upwards. Old fences 

 of a mixture of white and black thorn, maple, hazel, briar 

 crab, damson-plum, &c.; new of white thorn with ditch 



6693. SURREY. A surface of 519,040 acres beautifully varied : poor and heathy in the west, chalkv 

 in the east, and clayey in the south. The field cultivation of clover and turnips appears to liave first taken 



1' rom KeuNington through Hammersmith, Chiswick, Brcnf- 

 tord, Islfcworth, and Twickenham, seven miles of garden 

 ground ; may be denominated the great London fruit garden, 

 north of the Thames. An upper and under crop taken at the 

 same time ; the upper the fruits on trees ; the under straw- 

 berries and various herbaceous crops. To increase shelter and 

 warmth in autumn, they raise banks of soil 3 feet high, facing 

 the south, and sloped to an angle of 45" ; on these they plant 

 endive in September, and near the bottom, from October to 

 Christmas, they drill a row of pease; the endive is preserved 

 troiikxotting, and the pease come to maturity nearly as early as 

 If under a wall. The springs here, lie eight or ten feet under 

 the surface, and the water is raised from the wells by a bucket 

 and lever, balanced by a stone, (fig. 157.) Three thousand 

 acres ot garden ground here, employing five persons, a man, his 

 wife, and three children, per acre, during the winter half-year, 

 and during summer, five persons more, chiefly V\'tlsh women, 

 hstimated produce 100/. per "acre. 



Kitchen gardens. Much fresh litterv dung required for 

 growing mushrooms, early cucumbers, salads, potatoes, aspa- 

 ragus, &c. Consumption of the metropolis and its environs, 

 tor fruits and vegetables, estimated at upwards of a million 

 sterling per annum. Several farming gardens pay 1000/. per 

 annum. 



Nursery grounds. 

 a year. 



10. Woods and Plantations. 

 Copses and rvnods decreasing for ages : still a few acre* 



near Hampstead and Highgate. 



Hedgerorv timber much disfigured by being pollarded or 

 pruned to may-poles. 



Willows or osiers. Many islets on the Thames, rented by 

 basket makers, and planteil with osiers ; also, wet borders of 

 the nver so planted. Species salix vitellina, amvgdalina, or 

 almond-leaved, and viminalis, or osier ; willows when cut, made 

 up m bundles, or boulu, fortv-two inches round, at sixteen 

 inches above the but-ends. 



11. Improvements. 

 Draining, to carry off surface water. The mo<le of maklne 



surface gutters on meadows by means of an addition to cart 

 wlieels, (3979.) invented by the reporter. 



Manure produced in London by 30,000 horses, 8000 cows, 

 and / 00,000 Christians, equals 500,000 loads; of which, half 

 is carried into the Thames by the sewers, including ninetv- 

 nine per cent, of the night soil. 



12. Live stock. 

 Less live stock on the farms of this county than in any 



other ; no breeding. Short horned cows of Holderness chiefly 

 used by milkmen : number kept 8500 ; average produce nine 

 quarts per day ; fed on hay, turnips, brewer's grains, linseed 

 cake and jelly, and grass : retail dealers adulterate the milk, 

 preferring dirty water to clean ; and adulterate the cream 

 by adding molasses and a litUe salt. Very little butter made 

 in the county. Brewer's drays sujiplied with horses from the 

 Berkshire farmers, who buy them young from Northampton, 

 shire, and Avork them two or three years before they sell them, 

 ^ot more than one dove house in the county; but many 

 pigeons kept in empty wine pipes set upon jiosts, fifteen or 

 twenty feet high, and many kept by journeymen tradesmen 

 pigeon fanciers in the poorer jiarts of London, and most 

 other towns and villages of the county. 



13. Rural Economy. 

 Half the manual labor done by the job ; laborers ruined in 



morals and constitution, by the public houses. Gentlemen's 

 servants a bad and contaminating set. 



14. Political Economy. 

 Highways of the parishes good, turnpike roads bad, beginninjt 



now (1825) to be improved ; several canals terminate in or near 

 London ; arid New River for supplying water ; fairs on the de- 

 cline. Uxbridge the greatest com market next to Mark Lane. 

 Great cattle markets, Hounslow and Smithfield. Commerce 

 great. Manufactures not many ; considering agriculture as a 

 manufacture, and the soil as the raw material, and worth IG*. 

 per acre, at an average of England ; it is increased in value to 

 5/. or 525/. per cent. Distilleries and breweries numerous. 



15. Obstacles to Improveinent. 



Tithes, land-agenis being attornies, bad leases, bad rural ar- 

 tificers, bad and thieving servants. 



16. Miscellaneous Observations. 

 Society of Arts, Veterinary College, excellent institutions. 



Fines called hcriofs should be removed ; weights and measiues 

 regulated ; much damage is done by game. 



17. Means of Improvement. 



place in this county. (Steven-son's Survey, 1813. 

 Smith's Geological Map, 1821.) 



1. Geographical State and Circumstances. 

 Cli'i*att. Henlthy winds S. W. and V\'. : seldom blows from 

 any point between SM'. and N. E. for any lime. East wjnds 



Malcolm's Survey, 1809. MarshiU's Review, 1818. 



in spring, and then weather cold, raw, and drirding. Most 

 rain falls when the wind is S. S. \V. or S. 



Soils. Various and mokt irregularly diitributed ; a brood 

 zone of tenacious clay bordering Sussex ; patches of brick 



