Some of the Agricultural Lessons o/"18G8. 
27 
increased for the present till these are finished. It has been 
said that the physical and geological features and condition of 
Middlesex do not make it attractive as a residence for the rich. 
The cold clays to the north, with their lack of good water, the 
flat tract of loam and gravel to the south-west, with the exten- 
sive and extending manufacture of bricks, repel rather than 
encourage the colonization of either part of the county. Those 
whose business brings them onl}^ to London for the day go 
further afield, and on the gravel, on chalk, or such healthy subsoils, 
build or hire their country residence, and thus hinder the occu- 
pation of the cultivated soil of jNIiddlesex more than might from 
its gcograpliical position be expected. For some time, at least, 
the future of Middlesex will probably differ but little from the 
past. The distant hay-farms can only partially compete with 
those at hand ; and arable farms can spare but a small part of their 
fodder. Arable cultivation will, no doubt, yield more and more 
to garden-cultivation ; whilst the probable restoration of the 
milk-trade to London cowsheds will create an increased demand 
for hay from the meadows, and for root and green crops from 
the arable land which is so well fitted for their production and 
within easy distance of the market. The inevitable consequence 
of this will be to give a fresh impetus to the skill and enter- 
prise of the Middlesex farmer, and tend to enhance the value of 
the produce and the soil of the metropolitan county. 
IL — Some of the Agricultural Lessons of 1868, By 
J. Chalmers Morton, 
An attempt has been made in the following pages to represent 
some of the leading points of the agricultural experience of the 
country during the remarkable summer of 1868. The general 
prevalence of anything unusual in the natural conditions under 
which the crops of any large district of various soils have 
been grown becomes, when its results have been carefully col- 
lected and arranged, virtually a well-arranged agricultural ex- 
periment of the highest interest, because upon the largest scale. 
And the produce of 1868 was, in this country, grown under 
conditions so extraordinary that the agricultural history of the 
year could thus hardly fail to be instructive. 
In order to collect the facts, an inquiry was addressed to many of 
the leading members of the Society, asking for personal experience 
ol the season in connexion with six distinct subjects, namely, the 
character of the harvest ; the effect of steam cultivation ; the 
influence of land drainage, even during drought ; the extent of 
