A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



which has long been kept by the Dukes of Bedford, and also of the fine Herefords, for breeding 

 which Mr. Thomas Battams of Lidlington is famous. As to sheep, there are to be found in the 

 county flocks of the Leicesters (not now pure). Border Leicesters, and Hampshire Downs. For the 

 latter breed, especially, Bedfordshire is noted on account of the fine rams bred for many years 

 by the late Charles Howard of Biddenham, whose annual ram sales were resorted to by buyers from 

 many parts of the country. Mr. H. H. Green of Felmersham has succeeded Mr. C. Howard in this 

 industry, and the Felmersham ram sales are now as famous as the Biddenham ones were formerly. 

 As to pigs, it would be difficult to name the breeds which are to be met with in the county, but it 

 is certainly correct to say that there are a great number of pure-bred Berkshires, crossed sometimes 

 with the original English pig, the Tamworth. 



Turning to the subject of crops, we find that the question of meeting the demand of the 

 Millers' Association for a less starchy and more glutinous wheat than the ordinary English varieties 

 has come prominently to the front. As the Canadian Red Fife variety is more glutinous than the 

 white, millers have bought largely from Canada. So far, experience' in ordinary culture has shown 

 that while the Red Fife can be grown in England, the yield has not been equal to that of English 

 wheat. This has led to the prosecution of a number of experimental attempts to improve English 

 wheat in the direction of making it more glutinous. While the experiments at Cambridge have 

 succeeded, more or less, in effecting this by means of the Mendelian system of breeding for a series 

 of years, at the Woburn experimental farm, in Bedfordshire, the same result appears to have been 

 immediately achieved by merely adding to the soil a very small quantity' of a certain manurial 

 agent. 



Clover seed is no new crop in Bedfordshire, but its growth has very considerably developed 

 there in late years. It generally proves a very remunerative crop to the seller ; but it is of first 

 importance to the buyer that the seed should possess a high germinating percentage, a quality which 

 is sometimes lacking, as seed which on account of the character of the season has not been ripened 

 and well harvested has been occasionally put on the market. 



The growing of kohl-rabi has very largely developed in this county during the last fifteen 

 years, as a substitute for turnips, that are liable to be affected by the finger-and-toe disease, which 

 does not affect the kohl-rabi. It can also be grown on land which is not fit for swedes. The later 

 variety of kohl-rabi is hardy, will bear the winter, can be fed off, and is an excellent food. 



From time immemorial the eastern part of the county has been noted for its market-gardening 

 industry ; but it was not until towards the middle of the nineteenth century that this local industry 

 began to assume very extensive proportions. Its remarkable growth has been conditioned by the 

 fact that the Great Northern Railway and the Bedford and Cambridge branch of the London and 

 North-Western Railway have intersected, nearly at right angles, the district of East Bedfordshire 

 and the contiguous district of West Huntingdonshire, in which the soil was specially adapted for 

 market-garden culture. The river Ivel runs parallel to the Great Northern Railway between 

 Langford and Sandy, through land where the Lower Greensand and the Oxford Clay meet, and 

 which is specially fertile. The market-gardening district of East Bedfordshire and West Hunting- 

 donshire together extends, roughly speaking, some fifteen miles from north to south, and from four 

 to five miles from east to west. Though it is in this district that the greater part of the market- 

 gardening is centred, there is an increasing amount of it scattered over the county in different 

 parts ; most of it, however, being south of the River Ouse. The success of the industry in the 

 Sandy and Biggleswade district has doubtless had much to do with the stimulating of the growth of 

 it in other places where the soil is suitable and where there is easy access to markets or to the 

 railways. Among such localities may be mentioned the Greensand and peaty soil in and near 

 Flitwick and the neighbouring valley of the small river Flit or Fleet. Quite recently, owing to 

 a change of ownership and to the opening of a new railway station, a tract of nearly 2,000 acres 

 at Willington has been given over to market-garden culture, a great part of this land being taken 

 by growers from the Sandy district. Moreover, in many places farmers are getting into the 

 habit of mixing this culture with their other industry. Much market-garden produce also finds 

 its way into the markets from what may be regarded as small allotments in the environs of the 

 villages. 



It is impossible to give any definite statement of the total amount of market-garden land in 

 large and small holdings, as no returns of agricultural holdings of less than an acre are published 

 and the returns of market-garden holdings of more than i acre are grouped together in the ordinary 

 agricultural returns as under ' Other Crops,' while some of the produce of market gardens is grouped 

 with the general returns for potatoes, cabbages, and peas. The total area in Bedfordshire returned 

 as under ' Other Crops' was 6,980 acres in 1903, 6,591 in 1904, and 7,479 in 1905. Inquiries 



" -05 p.c. The addition of '15 p.c. of the manurial agent was found to carry the change injuriously far, 

 the yield being, though thoroughly glutinous, less in weight and making a very poor-looking sample 



