AGRICULTURE 



and give their butter-milk to the hogs.' 88 The author refers to Arthur 

 Young's investigations in dairy-farming ; he evidently regards it as a 

 subject of interest, increasing in proportion to the increase of London 

 itself, since dairy-farming requires a near and a constant market. 



Foot closes his account with words of advice ; 3i he points out the 

 importance of hedges in making the new inclosures. These should not be 

 made of ' wild-quick,' " such as the poor use, but ' quicks ought to be 

 had from the nursery-men,' 88 having been already twice transplanted. 



Middleton's View of the Agriculture of Middlesex [addressed to the 

 Board of Agriculture, 1797 ; 2nd Edition, 1807] covers much the same 

 ground as Foot's, though it is far more voluminous, and touches on 

 many irrelevant subjects. He describes the agricultural conditions of Mid- 

 dlesex as most favourable, and is therefore all the more anxious to point 

 out defects in cultivation. Thus he says : ' The plough in general use 

 throughout this county is a swing one of the most clumsy construction,' 8T 

 and ' I do not know of any instance of Mr. Ducket's simple, cheap, and 

 effectual drill being used in this county.' 88 He also is opposed to the 

 waste in common land, which he defines as the ' uncultivated soil of this 

 county, capable of receiving improvement,' 8 ' consisting as it did of 'about 

 8,700 acres, or one-twentieth part of the whole quantity.' * In the same 

 way he finds that trees grow well, but are ' scandalously ' pollarded, 41 and 

 that hedges are badly constructed, being 'generally full of live wood.'** 

 According to his computation the land was ' not producing wheat 

 sufficient to supply one-sixtieth part of the inhabitants with bread,' ** 

 in spite of its fertility. Heston is again highly spoken of, the soil there 

 being ' a most productive loam, possessing that most happy medium of 

 texture which fits it alike for the production of every kind of corn, pulse, 

 and root, and its staple is five or six feet in depth, on a bed of gravel.' 44 



Middleton gives a detailed account of the corn harvest. In the 

 case of wheat it began in the first week of August, and became general 

 in three weeks. Reaping was done by ' a toothless hook, of about twice 

 the weight of a common sickle.' 46 The reaper struck within two or 

 three inches of the ground ; he collected the sheaves separately, and then 

 bound ten together in a shock : this was called bagging or fagging. 48 

 Thrashing was usually done by the flail ; though the author points out 

 that mills were coming into more general use, in spite of the fact that in 

 them the corn became more bruised. 47 He considers barley to be par- 

 ticularly productive in this county ; thus : 



Two sorts of spring barley are usually grown. On rich land, the sprat or 

 battledore barley, which produces a short tapering straw, is mostly sown, owing to its 

 being less liable to fall to the ground than the other sorts. The common spring 

 barley, containing two rows of grain in the ear, is sown in every case when the soil is 

 not so rich as to endanger losing the crop. 48 



" Peter Foot, Gen. View ofAgric. of MM. 85. " Ibid. 86 et seq. M Ibid. 88. 



* Ibid. 87. "John Middleton, Vim ef the Agric. of Midd. 99. 



"Ibid. 107. "Ibid. 114. "Ibid. 114. 



41 Ibid. 344 et seq. "Ibid. 150. Ibid. 158. 



44 Ibid. 1 86 note. " Ibid. zi6. a Ibid. 216. 

 47 Ibid, z 1 7-8. "Ibid. Z34-J. 



213 



