44 Report on Messrs. Prout and Middleditcli s 
for tying-up and shocking behind the machines. So well satis- 
fied are these town denizens with their trip to the Hertfordshire 
hills that thej usually return annually, close the while their town 
house, and bring their families, three of which last year reached 
the goodly number of ten each, and are generally conveyed, wdth 
their scanty baggage, in donkey-carts. Harvest got-in, these 
labourers change their country quarters, and frequently have 
several weeks' hop-picking in Kent. 
I inspected JNIr. Prout's farm during the first week of last 
August, just as harvest operations begun. Compaied with most 
holdings throughout the ^lidland counties, and even with man}' 
in neighbouring parts of Hertfordshire, Blount's Farm exhibits 
a paucity of trees and hedge-rows. There is no permanent 
grass, a very limited area of green crops, and no live stock 
excepting a couple of Guernsey cows, six agricultural horses, 
a carriage-horse, and a ponv. Wheat is the staple produce, 
generally occupying upwards of 300 acres. In 1874 there were 
grown 216 acres of Payne's Rivett, a description of cone wheat, 
and 103 acres of Browick red — two varieties which have been 
proved by repeated experiment to be verv suitable for the soil 
and climate. Beans, having been repeatedly found uncertain, 
are discarded for the present ; oats answer well, about 50 
acres are generall}- grown, and their area will probably be in- 
creased. No barley was sown last year, but now that it is rela- 
tively dearer than wheat, and producible with a saving of pro- 
babh- \0s. per acre on the manure bills, preparation is made 
for drilling 100 acres this year. The crops nearly ready to cut 
looked remarkably well, were reported to be more uniform than 
those of 1873, and annual visitors attracted in ever-increasing 
numbers declared that they improve yearly. With the exception 
of portions of one field behind the house infested with wild oats, 
and one small enclosure of five acres, the farm was beauti- 
fully clean. The best crops of 1874 were those on the thinner, 
lighter soils and following clover. 
A brief description of the 20 rectangular fields into »which 
the farm is divided, their former management, and present ap- 
pearance, will prove instructive. 
North from the house and premises is Well Field, a 50-acre 
enclosure of strong clay land, bearing in 1874 Rivett wheat after 
clover. A buslicl and a-half of seed was drilled in October. 
The crop was horse and hand hoed and had no manure, save 
about seven acres, which looked badly in spring, and received 
1^ cwt. of nitrate of soda. In 1872 the field was wheat, in 1871 
beans, and in 1870 wheat. The crop of 1874 was level, with a 
good bold iicad, j)romisrd to yield 7 quarters per acre, and on 
the 28tli July made an average of If)/. 
