Book I. AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF ENGLAND. 1125 



milking, dairying, garden crops, hops, orchard crops, grazing, breeding, hay, corn, wood, minerals, as 

 stone quarries, &c., or to fisheries. At the origin of what we now call farming, or when the hiring of land 

 by cultivators succeeded to cultivating them for the landlords, or in partnership with the landlords, as is still 

 the case in Italy and most other countries, farms would of course be small, and farmers' men of scarcely 

 any capital or consideration in society. Just emancipated from a state of bondage and villanage, the new- 

 created independent tenant could not easily throw off the chains which formerly shackled his mind and 

 prevented his energies from being brought into action, and he could have little or no property when he 

 had no means of acquiring it but by plunder, or preserving it but by concealment. Hence the first tenants 

 were assisted by their landlords; and one remnant of this practice, that of allowing farmers to have a year's 

 rent always in hand, or, in other words, not to demand the rent till half or a whole year after it is due, 

 still exists in some parts of Scotland and Ireland. In process of time, however, and from various direct 

 and indirect causes, farmers at length acquired some degree of capital and respectability ; and as they 

 naturally thought of employing the former^ of course farms began to be enlarged to afford scope, and 

 leases granted to afford security. This practice has been gomg on in Britain for more than two centuries 

 past, and receives a fresh impulse whenever the prices of grain rise high, and continue so for some time. 

 At no period have they been so high as about the commencement of the present century, and during no 

 period have the riches and respectability of farmers so much increased. More recent political changes, 

 however, have jiroved singularly disastrous to farmers ; and till the corn laws are either obliterated, or 

 regulated on some permanent and more moderate principle, agriculture and its practisers of every descrip. 

 tion will remain liable to the extremes of profitable occupation and ruin. 



Chap. IIL 



Topographical Sui-vey of the British Isles in respect to Agriculture, 



777-t. The British isles, as we have already observed (1280.), are, in their present state, naturally and 

 politically more favourable to the practice of the agriculture of ale, butcher-meat, and wheat, than any 

 other country in the world. They have their disadvantages both in climate, and in civil and political 

 matters ; but, notwithstanding, there is no country in the world where farmers or proprietors are so 

 respectable a class of men, and where such excellent corn, herbage, roots, and hay, either raw, or in their 

 manufactured state of bread, ale, and butcher-meat, are brought to market. 



777.'i. The following outline of the state of agriculture in each of the different counties of the United 

 Kingdom is taken from the Surveys published under the authority of the Board of Agriculture, or the 

 Dublin Society ; from Marshal's remarks on these surveys, and his other writings ; and, in some cases, 

 from our own observation, having at various periods, since the year 1805, been in almost every county in 

 Britain, and in most of those in Ireland. Agricultural improvement is often of so variable and fleeting a 

 nature, that, notwithstanding our utmost care, some things may be found here inserted as such that no 

 longer exist ; and from the period, varying from twelve to twenty years, which has elapsed since the 

 surveys were published, many improvements may have been made deserving of insertion which are 

 omitted. These arc unavoidable defects attendant on this part of our work ; but though we cannot render 

 it perfect, yet we are of opinion we can bring together a sufiRcient number of facts, as to the natural and 

 agricultural circumstances of each county, as to render it both interesting and useful to the reader. We 

 regret much, that notwithstanding our most earnest invitation to the readers of the Gardener's Magazine 

 to send us corrections and additions for this part of the work, yet we have received so few, that we are 

 unavoidably obliged to send into the world the second edition of this chapter, in November, 1830, almost as 

 imperfect as was the first, in November, 1825. 



Sect. I. Agricultural Survey of England. 



ITIQ. The surface of England is estimated at from thirty-two to thirty-six millions of acres, with the 

 exception of some mountains in Cumberland and Westmoreland, almost every where cultivated, and 

 nowhere incapable of cultivation ; in most places varied, gently and beautifully in some districts, and 

 abruptly and on a grander scale in others. The most high and mountainous districts are those of the 

 north, and the most level those of the east. The most humid climates are those of the north-western 

 counties ; as Cheshire and Lancashire ; and the most dry those of the south-east, as Norfolk and Suffolk. 

 The richest grass lands are in the vales of the great rivers, as the Severn, Trent, and Thames. The 

 richest arable lands, in Worcestershire, Warwickshire, and in part of various other counties ; and the 

 best forming, in Northumberland, Durham, and Cumberland. The greatest variety of farming may be 

 seen in the counties round London ; and the gre?test sameness, regularit)', order, science, success, and 

 the wealthiest farmers in Northumberland and the coanty of Durham. The geology and minerals of 

 the kingdom are most ably indicated in SinitJi's Geological Map of England, Wales, and part of Scotland, 

 1>'15; Smith's County Geological Maps, 1819 to 1824;' and Smith's Geological Table of British Organised 

 Fossils, 1819. These works are of the greatest importance to landed proprietors. 



7777. MIDDLESEX is part of the north side of a vale watered by the Thames, and contains 192,000 

 acres, exhibiting a great variety of agriculture. {Middleton's Survey, 1806. MarskaPs Review, 1818. 

 Edin. Gaz., 1827.) 



1. Geographical State and Circmnstances. 



Climate. Healthy ; warmer near London, from the fires 

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

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

 the S. W. blow 6-iyths of the years, N. E. 8-12ths. Greatest 

 falls of rain from a few points VV. of S. and are of the longer 

 continuance when the wind has pa'Ssed through the east to the 

 louth. In spring, firost in the hollows, when none on the hills, 

 thermometer has been as high as 83, and as low as C below 

 zero. 



Soil. By long continued manuring, the surface soil almost 

 every where looks like loam. Sand and gravel on Hampstead 

 Hill. Loamy sand from Hounslow to Combrook. 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 Rickmansworth to Staines, on a substratum 

 of the gravel of flints. Marsh land or rich loam deposited from 

 still water in the Isle of Dogs, and on the Lea and Coin. 



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

 stead 400 feet above the level of the sea. One mile from 

 London on the Kin^sland lload, the surface of upwards of 



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

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

 per acre; and when marly, for malms orwhite bricks, 20,000/. 

 per acre. Brick earth formerly 100/. per acre, now 500/. per 

 acre. An acre at four feet deep yields four millions of bricks. 



Mineral strata. 1. Cultivated surface. 2. Gravel of flints, 

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

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

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

 to prevent digging deeper. 



Water. Abundant and excellent. The Thames, from Ox- 

 ford to Maidenhead, falls about 24 feet in ten miles; from 

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

 to Mortlake, 13 feet i>er 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 at East Acton, Hampstead, and Bagtiigge- 

 wells ; chalybeates little used. 



Fish caught in the Thames. Sturgeon, salmon, tenchj barbel, 

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

 and flounders. 



4 C 3 



