On the Farming of Middlesex. 
19 
peculiarity of loiifj-woolled breeds, tlie tendency to feed singly on 
the meadows, unlike the Downs whose gregarious habits unfit 
them for the purpose to which they are put by the Middlesex 
farmer. On the arable fai-ms, a dry flock is kept in preference 
to breeding ; it would not be compatible with the practice and 
rotation common to the farms on the best land, of growing wheat 
every third year, to maintain a flock on summer-grown green 
crops, which if raised might in most cases be sold to better 
advantage for the London markets. There was a branch of 
agricultural economy practised in the county in the days of 
Baird and Middleton, of Avhich no trace now remains, namely, 
the breeding and suckling of house-lamb. The latter says, writing 
in 1813, that the practice had decreased within the then preceding 
twenty years, and was in his day finding a place in other counties 
whence they were sent in light carriages. The Dorset ewes 
bought at Wey Hill, and other fairs, whose tendency to early 
and frequent lambing is well known, fitted them for this purpose. 
Great pains were taken to raise the lamb dropped at Michaelmas, 
and sold in December. The call for very early lamb is restricted, 
and the raising of lambs for the market at and soon after Christmas 
is confined to few persons, the practice being ruled by a mild 
climate, and dry and kindly soil — such as parts of southern 
Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. The facility of transit by 
railway, dead or alive, from such places, gives no advantage to 
Middlesex raised lamb, for which the soil and system of farming 
are manifestly unfitted. 
Woodlands. 
In the northern or grass land district of the county there are 
some woods of considerable extent ; as these are on stiff clay, or 
on sites covered with a thin coating of upper level gravel, it is not 
likely that they will be brought into cultivation ; moreover, at the 
present time, there is a greatly increased demand for faggots. 
The growth is hazel, ash, birch, hornbeam, and blackthorn, from 
which the best and straightest are cut into stakes and headers for 
making hedges ; the practice, however, has of late years decreased, 
and the pride of the hedger and ditcher is on the wane, partly 
because the periodical making of hedges was one of the features 
of agricultural economy in past generations. The hedges were 
allowed to stand till there was sufficient growth to pay for felling 
and remaking the hedge, for which the stakes and headers found 
a ready sale ; at present, with exception of the larger poles, very 
much of the growth is made into faggots for domestic use, either 
as they are taken from the wood, or made into small bundles for 
kindling fires. The ready sale Avith which the growth of the still 
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