1922.] 



The Orchards of Middlesex. 



269 



In England hops are pressed into tall cylindrical pockets for 

 marketing, whereas on the Continent and in America tin hops 

 are universally marketed in rectangular bales. The former are 

 awkward to handle, awkward to load upon wagons and on rail, 

 and are by no means economical of labour in filling ; the pocket 

 has to be many times filled and the hops as many times slowly 

 compacted with the foot of the press. The rectangular haling 

 press, generally operated by horse power, completes the pressing 

 in three or four operations and is much more expeditious. It is 

 of course readily admitted that it is hardly possible to contem- 

 plate scrapping the circular presses indiscriminately, but it does 

 seem desirable that the relative economy of the two methods 

 should be carefully examined, and a useful purpose might be 

 served if the Royal Agricultural Society, when it next meets 

 near a hop-growing centre, offered a prize for the most econo- 

 mical design for power pressing. 



THE ORCHARDS OF MIDDLESEX. 



C. H. MlDDLETON, 



Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. 



Middlesex is one of the oldest if not the oldest of the counirv"s 

 commercial fruit-growing counties. Its proximity to the London 

 markets, and the fertile alluvial soils of the valleys of the 

 Thames and the Lea, have attracted fruit growers for many 

 generations, and there is no doubt that in early days, when 

 transport was confined to horse traffic, the Metropolis looked to 

 Middlesex for the bulk of its fruit supplies. With the advent 

 of modern transport, however, and the gradual overflow of 

 Greater London into the best fruit districts, the county has lo-t 

 many of its privileges, although it holds its own, and th i cultiva- 

 tion of fruit is still a flourishing industry. 



The old fruit-growing area of the county was the Thames 

 Valley from Fulham and Hammersmith to Twickenham, in- 

 cluding Chiswick, Brentford and Isleworth. The parishes of 

 Isleworth and Brentford still contain some of the best orchards of 

 the county, but during the past half-century the growth of the 

 residential districts and the building of factories, the expiration 

 of leases, and the increasing value of land, have pushed the 

 fruit growers further west, and orchards have been planted over 

 the extensive flat area, roughly 40 square miles in extent, of 

 which the village of Feltham is about the centre. On the colder 



