AGRICULTURE 



Of pigs the returns are as follows : 



1876 : 12,352 



1906 ' 16,272 



This is an interesting return. The small owners who are a feature of 

 the county evidently tend to keep pigs, and the fact that the figures for 

 swine have increased while those for cattle and sheep have diminished is 

 one which the critic can hardly fail to associate with the fact that in 

 Middlesex the average agricultural holding is a third smaller than for the 

 kingdom as a whole. 



In the Report of the Royal Commission on Agricultural Depression, 

 1897, Middlesex is included among the Eastern Counties, in ' the arable 

 section,' but it is not mentioned separately. Certain causes of the general 

 depression affect this county, such as foreign competition and the fall in 

 the prices of farm produce. On the other hand, high railway rates do 

 not constitute a grievance, and ' land in proximity to favoured markets 

 has maintained or even increased its value.' 



The following special and very valuable return was issued in Decem- 

 ber last, and gives the number of agricultural holdings in the county : 



Class i 



2 



3 



4 



Total . 



588 Petty occupiers (under 5 acres) 



1,008 Small ( 50 ) 



465 Medium ( 300 ) 



42 Large (over ) 



2,103 agricultural holdings. 



The average size of agricultural holdings in Middlesex is 44*7 acres 

 against 63*2 acres for Great Britain. It is only half that of the average 

 holding in the neighbouring county to the north, Hertford, and it is 

 eleven acres less than in the county across the Thames, Surrey. The 

 number of large holdings is curiously limited, for, the great estate holders' 

 home farms being omitted, the number of actual working tenant farmers 

 holding 300 acres and upwards must be extremely small. What is it, in 

 a county still under primogeniture, which makes this division ? It seems 

 to be that property divided into several lots (the ideal unit is seen to be 

 44 acres in Middlesex) sells better than larger undivided properties. 

 What keeps an owner from offering 440 acres in ten separate lots else- 

 * where is the fear that some may remain on hand, but in Middlesex 

 the land appears promptly to be taken up, and of course the rent of 

 44 acres would almost anywhere exceed the rent of 440 acres divided 

 by ten. 



Percentages of acres under agriculture in Middlesex are as follows : 



Arable 16-5 per cent. 



Grass 47-5 



Woods 27 



Commons ...... . -i 







66 ; 8 



Non-agricultural 33-2 



IPO 

 219 



