On the Farming of Middlesex. 
13 
The trussing is paid for by the load of thirtj-six trusses, weiglung 
56 lbs. each, or at one penny per truss : it is seldom done by 
the day. 
Of late years lighter carts, fitted as is the custom with ladders 
and copses, have generally superseded those of heavy and un- 
wieldy construction, with broad wheels of large diameter. The 
load is drawn to tlie London markets by one, sometimes two 
horses. Of the three markets, Whitechapel, Smithfield, and 
Cumberland (St. James now only retaining the name), Cumber- 
land is the best arranged. The Regent's Canal, of which the 
basin is immediately to the north of the market, brings hay and 
straw, and conveys away tlie manure, though tliis is rather a con- 
venience to the distant growers than to the Middlesex farmer, 
who, if they have no private contract or agreement for the supply 
of hay and I'emoval of manure, consign their loads of hay to sales- 
men (who it is hoped do not at the present day deserve the 
character given to tliem by Middleton). The commission per load 
if immediately delivered is 4s. ; if this be left to the salesman an 
additional shilling is added, but this is deemed an insufficient 
remuneration for the trouble it entails. 
The regular traders usually have an extra cart left in hay 
barns attached to the market, for the care of which 2s. per week 
is charged ; when the next load is brought this cart is taken 
«ither in search of manure, or to those stables with which a 
contract has been made for its regular removal. This saves much 
time, and men and horses return home without unnecessary delay ; 
2s. Qd. is the sum usually allowed to carters who go in search 
■of the return load of manure, which is either clumped and allowed 
to rot, or often immediately spread on the land on its arrival at 
the farm ; but the latter practice is daily increasing in favour. 
Sometimes the Middlesex farmers sell their ricks to jobbers, or 
"jockey men," as they are called, sometimes under agreement 
to return manure, at others without any restriction. When the 
marketing of the hay and the return of manure are entirely carried 
■on by the farmer, it involves much night work on the road for 
men and horses, and too often has a bad moral effect on the 
former from constant temptations to drink, and sometimes, as a 
•<;onsequence, to dispose dishonestly of the fodder of the horses, 
and occasionally of a portion of the load itself. These evils are 
•so keenly felt by some persons, that they prefer selling their hay 
in bulk, or grazing their land, to sending their hay to the London 
•Jiiarket. 
Though the greatest part of the grass land of Middlesex is 
Sn the northern part of the county, where the surface of the 
London and Plastic clays is exposed, there is a considerable 
•breadth of low meadow adjoining the western and south-western 
