THE EASTERN COUNTIES. 219 



or four miles distant from Eegent's Park. It consists of 

 one hundred acres entirely in grass, of which sixty is 

 natural meadow, and forty Italian rye-grass. It is let 

 at about 3 per acre ; the tenant, besides, paying tithes 

 and other taxes, amounting to about 15s. per acre more. 



Immediately to the north of London is the small county 

 of Hertford, which, like Surrey on the south, is filled with 

 villas and gardens. It possesses one of the most curious 

 and remarkable establishments in England, namely, the 

 laboratory of agricultural chemistry belonging to Mr 

 Lawes of Rothhampstead Park, near St Albans, the 

 only establishment of the kind now existing, since that 

 established at great expense by the Agricultural Institute 

 of Versailles was destroyed. A private individual has 

 established, and supports at his own expense, a costly en- 

 terprise, which elsewhere governments have declined to 

 undertake, and which will be of immense utility to the 

 whole country. All England looks to the results of ex- 

 periments there carried on, and it has already furnished 

 valuable information respecting the different kinds of 

 manures best suited to the various kinds of crops and soils. 

 Mr Lawes' laboratory is upon the scale of a regular manu- 

 factory : a steam-engine of ten-horse power; a cast-iron 

 stove eight feet long ; enormous furnaces ; everything, in 

 fact, fitted for carrying on his experiments. The entire 

 carcasses of cattle are there reduced to ashes for the pur- 

 pose of exact analysis. M. Pay en, who is a good judge 

 in such matters, has seen these arrangements, and ex- 

 pressed his admiration of them in a report which has been 

 published. A piece of ground of twelve or fifteen acres, 

 divided into twenty-eight compartments, serves as a field 

 for trying experiments with the different manures. 



Any one who has with a little attention followed the 

 movement in agriculture at the present day, must be satis- 



