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XXX. — Farming of Herefordsliire. By Tii. Rowlandson. 

 Prize Report. 



The County of Hereford ranks amongst the least considerable of 

 the English counties, so far as superficial area is concerned, and 

 owing to its purely agricultural character possesses the smallest 

 population in proportion to its extent of any county, with the 

 exception of Westmoreland — the bleak and dreary moors and 

 mountains of the latter district sufficiently account for the 

 different proportions — Herefordshire possessing a population 

 amounting to 128 individuals per square mile, whilst Westmoreland 

 only contains 74 individuals on an equal space. As to the number 

 of persons engaged in agriculture in proportion to the entire 

 population, Hereford exceeds all other counties, and may con- 

 sequently be deemed the purest agricultural district in England. 

 The ratios here drawn are taken from the Census of 1841, the 

 returns for 1851 not having yet been published, owing to the 

 unfortunate fire at the printing-office of Messrs, Clowes and Sons. 



According to the returns alluded to, the entire population of 

 Herefordshire amounted to 113,878 persons, of both sexes and 

 all ages. Of this number, 16,213 persons were actively engaged 

 in agricultural pursuits, and 11,265 do. in trade, commerce, 

 manufactures, &c. 



The Character of the Soils and Subsoils of the County. — The 

 total area of the county of Hereford, according to the trigono- 

 metrical survey, is 543,800 statute acres, the largest proportion 

 of which is occupied by the rocks known as the old red sand- 

 stone. To a casual observer, especially if he happens to traverse 

 the district by the principal mail-coach routes only, the whole 

 county presents the appearance of one continued mass of red 

 soil, superposed on a silicious red sandstone rock. Freely 

 admitting this feature as forming the principal characteristic of 

 the surface soil of Herefordshire, it nevertheless admits of many 

 modifications, interesting not only in an economical point of 

 view to the agriculturist, but also in a scientific one to the 

 geologist. To no district in England could the student in agri- 

 cultural geology better direct his attention than the one now 

 under consideration. It does not possess the grand and wild 

 features presented in the contiguous mountainous district of 

 South Wales, with its violent contortions of strata, abrupt preci- 

 pices, and Alpine heights ; but to compensate for these more 

 striking circumstances, the sylvan and pastoral beauties presented 

 in an excursion from the Malvern Hills, across the Woolhepe 

 district to Hereford, will form a not inadequate recompense. 

 In traversing this district from the points indicated, the way- 



