A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



Pasture pure and simple was thus represented in 1876 : 



Rotation . 

 Permanent. 



. 4,902 acres 

 78,933 



In 1906 the figures were : 



1,552 acres 

 69,769 



Rotation 

 Permanent 



The declining area of rotation pastures is peculiarly discouraging, for 

 such pastures are nearly always a sign of progressive and scientific agricul- 

 ture. 



The number of horses kept in Middlesex has been returned as 

 follows : 



1876 

 1906 



6,015 

 6,043 



There is an extraordinary stability about these figures, thirty years 

 having made no appreciable modification in the total. The number of 

 well-to-do private residents who keep horses has probably increased, that 

 of farmers keeping ordinary cart-horses diminished, and the two changes 

 may be taken to balance each other. Middlesex has never been a horse- 

 breeding county, and it is not likely to become one. The increased use 

 of steam machinery on go-ahead farms has told against the number of 

 horses kept. 



Cattle are thus returned : 



1876 .... ...... . 26,460 



J 9 6 ........... '7,499 



These figures are smaller than would have been expected, for they in- 

 clude the large herds of dairy cattle kept by Sir George Barham and 

 other dairy kings, and they also comprise the beautiful if more or less 

 fancy cattle kept by noble and wealthy residents like the owners of 

 Osterley and Gunnersbury and Syon Parks. The number of cattle kept 

 for non-dairy purposes has almost certainly retrograded very fast. Yet 

 London every Christmas gives orders for many thousand tons of prime 

 beef. 



Of sheep the number before 1870 probably exceeded 40,000, but 

 from about 1871 the keeping of sheep in Middlesex tended to decline. 

 In 1876 the number was 36,770. The returns for 1906 were : 



Ewes 



Lambs 



Others 



3) 86o 

 4,503 

 6,520 



The revival of sheep-breeding, which is in progress in England generally, 

 has thus far failed to touch this county, although it is in close contact 

 with a market always willing to give a good price for good mutton. 

 Any of the Down breeds will flourish in Middlesex. 



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