8 
On the Farming of Middlesex, 
The normal aspect and condition of tlie surface of soil, espe- 
cially at or about Heston, lias undergone and is daily undergoing 
a change by the removal of brick-earth in the manufacture of 
bricks. Not only is there the temptation to the proprietors of 
the soil of a royalty on every thousand of bricks, varying from 
Is. to 25. 6c?., but the Grand Junction Canal passes thiough the 
middle of this district, and with the aid of rail or tram roads- 
facilitates the carriage of the ware to London and all parts of the 
country. The Great Western and other railways, though not 
offering the advantage of water-carriage, assist in robbing the 
south-western limb of Middlesex of its fertile sandy loam. A 
part of the bargain with the brickmaker is that the tilth shall be 
replaced and the surface levelled ; yet it is manifest that there 
must be a deterioration of the land, though the manure con- 
veyed from London as back-carriage by the canal-boats in some 
measure replaces the natural by the introduction of an artificial 
fertility. In some spots where the water, which is found in the 
gravel throughout the district, is reached in the removal of the 
brick-earth, osiers are planted, and the waste of space prevented. 
The older records of the state of agriculture in the county are 
scanty, and generally local till 1793, when ' A General View of 
the Agriculture of the County of Middlesex ' was published by 
Thomas Baird. This was followed by a larger and more elabo- 
rate Report, drawn up for the consideration of the Board of 
Agriculture by John Middleton in 1813 ; and it will be 
necessary to refer to these Avriters in that which follows, before 
quitting the question of the geological features and character of 
the soil, to notice what they say of the commons at the time 
their reports were written. Though all these commons, with, 
little exception, were on poor and hungry gravel or sandy soil; 
they are now under cultivation. Baird, speaking of Hounslow 
Heath and Finchley Common, says, they are wastes fitted only 
for Cherokees and other savages ; and, quoting Rocque's map, 
1754, gives Hounslow at ()658 and Finchley at 1243 acres. 
That part of Stanwell in the former was sold for 21/. per acre. 
He gives Enfield Chase at from 2000 to 3000 acres. Middleton, 
quoting from the same sources, gives various details as to the 
time of certain enclosures and their extent, though the latter are 
only approximations to the truth,and are only interesting as matters 
of history ; and when speaking of the then state of Hounslow 
Heath, he describes it as land of such good quality that it- 
was disgraceful to the county and insulting to the inhabitants of 
the metropolis that it should remain in its then unproductive 
state, when it might be brought to yield an average produce 
of 10/. per acre. This remark may be taken as a forecast of a 
coming reality, such as may be found in many pages of this- 
