270 
Agriculture of Hertfordshire. 
C In ( Innn 
stations. 
Authorities. 
Height of l!ain 
Gage. 
Depth of Rain. 
Above 
Ground. 
Abovo 
Sea- 
level. 
I860. 
1361. 
1862. 
1863. 
Hertfordshire:— 
ft. in. 
feet. 
inches. 
inches. 
inches! 
inches. 
Watford . . . 
R. Eittlcboy, Esq. . 
5 G 
200? 
35-00 
20-19 
2G-79 
Watford House . 
H. Clutterbuck, Esq, 
1 C> 
27-52 
T*j£isthury , Wutloril 
0 3 
■ 
27-30 
Reld'sWeir, Hod-) 
desdon . . 5 
X. Bcardmore, Esq. 
2 0 
82 
21-98 
25 72 
w) m 5 
Gorhambury . 
Mr. Kogue . 
2 9 
34-08 
22 13 
29-16 
P r~t &• 
ilemclhempstead . 
J. Dickinson and Co. 
3 0 
250 
34-22 
21-20 
27-44 
lit 
Berkhampstead . 
W. Squire, Eeq. 
1 6 
370 
36-24 
24-10 
29-50 
W w *** 
Hitchln . . . 
W. Eucas, Esq. . . 
2 0 
22 52 
Hoys ton . . . 
H. Worthara, Esq. . 
0 7 
267 
29 : 56 
19 : 81 
23-93 
The South-midland Counties (including Hertfordshire), the 
Eastern Counties, and Middlesex, are the driest counties in 
England. 
Soil and General Aspect. 
If we except two patches of green sand with a little gault on 
the borders of Bucks and Cambridgeshire, the chalk formation 
occupies the whole of the county to the north of a line drawn 
from a point just north of Bishop's Stortford, through Ware, 
Hatfield, St. Albans, and Rickmansworth. 
A stranger, however, on observing the chalk cropping out in 
the deep lanes and cuttings might easily be misled as to the 
general quality of the soil ; but the prevalence of the bare fallow 
and the absence of the tinkling sheep-bell ought soon to unde- 
ceive him. The land here is chiefly arable. 
The remaining portion of the county south of the chalk 
formation, and bordering on Essex and Middlesex, consists of 
London and plastic clay. Here the clays and loam are generally 
of greater depth, and better suited for pasture. The Middlesex 
corner of the county is almost entirely devoted to grass-farming, 
and the making of hay for the London market. In this district 
the staple of the land is occasionally deep and fertile, as in the 
nurseries at Sawbridgeworth, where the fruit-trees have under 
them 10 feet of good loam. • 
The richest tract in the county is said to be the sandy loam in 
the valley of the Lea, from Hoddesdon to Cheshunt. This spot 
is specially appropriated to market-gardening and to nurseries. 
Some of the worst land is in several parishes east and south- 
east of Stevenage, where the clay is of a poor, wet, hungry de- 
scription, which cannot easily be improved. 
Around Hatfield, Myms, and Northam, is a considerable tract 
marked in Arthur Young's map of the soils "poor gravel." That 
