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CHAPTER XV. 



THE EASTERN COUNTIES. 



WE now cross the Thames and enter the eastern district. 

 Middlesex is the first county which meets us ; but, properly 

 speaking, it has no agricultural importance, for, besides 

 being one of the smallest containing only about one 

 hundred and eighty thousand acres it is almost entirely 

 occupied by the immense metropolis of the British empire. 

 Beyond the town properly so called, all that is not in 

 villas or gardens is under grass, either natural or artifi- 

 cial ; the hay from which is sold in London, or goes to 

 supply the dairies of the capital. Proximity to such a 

 large population affords enormous supplies of manure, by 

 which the fertility of the soil is renewed as it becomes 

 exhausted by incessant production. It is admitted, how- 

 ever, that farming in the neighbourhood of London is not 

 altogether what it might be. High as rents for arable land 

 are averaging 40s. per acre they do not exceed, nor 

 even reach, the rate paid in some other parts of England. 

 The state of agriculture which prevails in the surround- 

 ing counties makes itself felt up to the very gates of the 

 greatest existing centre of consumption. Farms in this 

 part of the environs of London average one hundred 

 acres in extent. There are some of three and four hun- 

 dred, but a great number are below one hundred. Among 

 the most skilfully managed is one at Willesden, only three 



