A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



Barley was mown by scythes, ' previously furnished with a bow or 

 cradle, to collect the corn together, and keep it from scattering.' * 9 

 Unusually heavy crops were bound into sheaves and set up in stocks ; but 

 the average ones were arranged in swaths, then raked into rows, and 

 carted for stack or barn. 60 The produce of wheat was reckoned by 

 Middleton to be from ten to over forty bushels per acre ; that of barley, 

 from fifteen to seventy-five bushels. 61 



He describes the other crops, and urges such a system of rotation 

 'as shall support cattle on arable land all the year round.' 63 But, except in 

 matters of detail, he adds little information to that given by Foot, whom 

 he sometimes quotes. Both writers agree on two subjects, viz. the 

 wastefulness of commons, and the excellence of the hay-making. ' This 

 branch of the rural art has, by the farmers of Middlesex, been brought 

 to a degree of perfection altogether unequalled by any other part of the 

 kingdom.' 6S 



The kitchen gardens between Westminster and Chelsea, with the 

 nursery grounds for fruit, shrubs, and flowers at Chelsea, Brompton, 

 Kensington, Hackney, Dalston, Bow, Mile End, are described as 

 flourishing. 64 The author deplores the neglect of drainage " as well as of 

 paring and burning, 66 this neglect being due to want of enterprise 

 rather than to ignorance. In discussing the use of oxen for field labour, he 

 says : ' Upon the whole, I am of opinion that the very few advantages 

 which oxen possess, are not by any means of such consideration as to 

 compensate for the damage which their being used would do upon some 

 kinds of land.' " 



The uniformly profitable character of agriculture from 1801 to 

 1815 gave to rural Middlesex an immense impetus which, thanks to the 

 rapid growth of metropolitan population, was in no way lost from 1815 

 to 1845. The Free Trade movement was vehemently fought in Mid- 

 dlesex, the rural parts of which gravitated to Conservatism in the middle 

 Victorian era after two centuries of a Puritan and then Whig cast. 



But, for reasons which lie outside the scope of this article, Free 

 Trade did not produce bad results for agriculture between 1846 and 

 1873, and the famous new Domesday Book of the latter year reveals decided 

 prosperity. In the parish of Ickenham 981 acres of agricultural land 

 were bringing in 2,235 a year, and 122 acres at Hoddesdon, 650 a 

 year. Small holdings even in very minor rural places yielded a good 

 rent, as for instance 10 acres at South Mimms 71 a year, 3 acres at 

 Ruislip 38 a year, and 6 acres at Cranford 38 a year. In the 

 market gardening region we find at Isleworth, Brentford, Chiswick, 

 Acton, and Hammersmith a total area of 66 acres bringing in 445 a 

 year, while dairy meadows in Finchley, Edmonton, Wood Green, and 

 Southgate yielded 414 a year from 41 acres. The riparian parishes of 

 Teddington, Shepperton, Sunbury, Staines, and Laleham were acquiring 



" John Middleton, View of the Agric. ofMidd. 236. 



10 Ibid. 236. " Ibid. 2 19, 237. " Ibid. 220, &c. 



u Ibid. 309. M Ibid. 330, 338. u Ibid. 364 



"Ibid. 366. "Ibid. 482. 



214 



