Agriculture of Hertfordshire. 
Til 
often free from stones (which is not elsewhere the case), and 
least intermixed with spots of light land. 
There are a few large farms, but the average is under 300 
acres. The woods are a feature of this district : the farms gene- 
rally are too much burdened with hedges and timber, and the 
fields too small. 
The usual rotation is : — 
1. Fallow, or roots. 
2. Barley, or sometimes wheat. 
3. Clover. 
4. Wheat. 
5. Oats. 
Or, 
1. Fallow, or roots. 
2. Wheat or barley. 
3. Clover, or beans. 
4. Wheat. 
The latter is most common on the Essex side of the county, 
where bean-cultivation is most in favour. Of late years the 
growth ol winter-beans has increased considerably, and restricted 
the five-field course, an advantageous change in most instances, 
as it admits of better tillage, and the more frequent use oiLthe 
hoe. 
Stock-keeping and the growth of roots have here occupied 
quite a secondary place. 
Two opposite methods have of late been adopted for improv- 
ing on the common system : the increase of returns from corn, 
by more efficient tillage, and the use of artificial manures ; 
or else the growth of roots and rape for early folding, or for 
feeding in yards, or on the clovers in early spring. Without 
here discussing the merits of the two systems we may observe 
that the root-cultivation which some heavy-land farmers have 
successfully practised is never remunerative unless accompanied 
by a thorough knowledge of the art of stock-feeding. 
The high price of stock has led to a pretty general increase 
in the root-crops, of which a few acres are now grown on most 
farms (though not usually under very liberal management), 
to help the making of straw into manure. Store-cattle are then 
wintered in the yards, or they are fatted off on cut roots, oil- 
rake, and sometimes meal, cotton-cake mixed with straw-chaff. 
Hay is more frequently sold than used at home. Pigs are bred 
and fattened to a small extent. 
Farm-horses are generally bought out of Lincolnshire and else- 
where. Twenty years ago it was common to buy in young horses 
ol 21r or 3 years old from the midland counties, keep them at 
half work, and sell them at five years old, well fed up, to the 
London draymen. But this trade has entirely died out, the 
constant care and favour which the colt requires being incom- 
patible with the requirements of such tillage-farms. 
