Oil the Farming of Middlesex. 
15 
under crops, are disappearing more rapidly than they can be 
replaced on newly planted ground. The sale of the produce, 
whether orchard or kitchen, and the maintenance of the fertility 
of the soil, manifestly depend on their vicinity to London. As 
with the hay, so with the garden crops ; each load sent to 
market is replaced by a return load of manure, a system abso- 
lutely necessary to suburban garden cultivation, and daily ex- 
tending to farms under the plough, by the introduction of the 
market-garden element in the cultivation of green and root crops 
to be consumed in London. 
" Arable Land, 
There were in 1866 38,736, and in 1867 36,832, acres of land 
to which the term arable may be applied. A few examples of 
extensive and well cultivated farms will be sufficient to show 
their system and general character, as well as the influence of 
the London markets on their management ; while a comparison 
of the crops grown on the arable land as roughly estimated by 
Middleton, with those given in detail in the Parliamentary Returns 
for 1866 and 1867, will indicate the character of the farming, and 
by showing the relative quantity of each crop grown, to a certain 
extent, indicate the variation of system, and the purpose to which 
the produce was put, at that time as compared with the present. 
In giving the quantities of green crops then grown, Middleton 
advises, as a manifest improvement, the increased production of 
various green crops, on the then usually adopted naked fallow ; 
and he even, suggests a possibility of that which of late years 
is so much practised, of two green crops, and even three, being 
grown in one season on otherwise unproductive soil. The quan- 
tities as given by Middleton and the Parliamentary Returns are 
as follows : — 
Middleton. 
M'heat. 
Barley. 
Oats. 
Eye. 
Beans. 
Teas. 
Total. 
10,000 . 
. 4000 , 
A few. . 
. A small quautitj'. 
.. 30U0 . 
. 3000 . 
. 20,000 
Parliamentarii Betim). 
Wheat. 
Barley. 
Oats. Rye. 
Beans. 
Peas. 
Total. 
1866 .. 
■J654 . 
2222 . 
574.5 .. 440 .. 
1466 .. 
1469 
. 20,996 
1867 .. 
9.118 . 
. 2191 . 
5.527 .. 5C5 .. 
1321 .. 
1373 
. 20,495 
Diff. 
13C 
31 
218 In. 125 
145 
96 
501 
The only increase as between 1866 and 1867 is on the rye crop, 
used as green fodder for horses and cows, or fed by sheep. 
Middleton does not give the area cropped with either potatoes 
or turnips, though both were extensively grown ; he says that 
