Agriculture of Hertfordshire. 
281 
Five quarters of seed per acre is a good crop. It is sold at 24s. 
or. 25s. a quarter to factors, and prepared by them for market. 
Wheat. — The most common varieties are golden drop, Bowles' 
prolific, Spalding; on the borders of Essex and on the colder 
heavier lands, Rivett, a bearded wheat (seed about 2^ bushels per 
acre) ; rough chaff white is sometimes sown : time of sowing, tbte 
second week in October to the second week in November ; width 
of row 6 inches to 8 inches: not much hoeing: a large number 
of acres dressed with about 40 bushels of soot per acre. 
Oats are frequently grown after wheat, as elsewhere detailed. 
Chalking. 
This ancient practice (for it has prevailed as far back as 
the history of the county extends) appears to rest its merits 
almost entirely on its mechanical effect on the soil, to which, 
however, can hardly be attributed the disappearance of may- 
weed and sorrel from lands that have been chalked. The 
common remark is, that the dung-cart should follow the chalking, 
which is usually applied to a fallow for roots. On the other 
hand, the occasional complaint of injury by chalking also rests 
on the mechanical effect — as, for instance, in the case of wheat, 
when a frost, acting on a heavy coat of chalk, has loosened the 
surface, and either lifted the plant or caused it to be root-fallen ; 
or in the case of roots, when the process has been deferred till 
the season is too far advanced for the land to be got into good 
condition for turnips. The mechanical effect consists in render- 
ing heavy land more mellow and easy to plough, and gravels less 
liable to burn. On either description of soil chalking is still 
a general and approved practice. The work is done by chalk- 
drawers, who charge b^d. per load of 20 bushels, and Is. a load 
for stones, supposing the shaft not to exceed 12 feet in depth ; 
this price includes spreading (worth \d. per load) and filling in 
the shaft. One man at the bottom of the shaft raises the chalk 
and fills the bucket, another winds it up, and two or three, with 
barrows, drive it away so as to cover 4 to 6 acres, laying it in 
rows and in bushel-heaps to facilitate the account. The shaft is 
then filled in, the top soil being in the first instance thrown back 
and then replaced after the hole has been filled up Avith subsoil. 
Early winter is the proper season for the work, and the harrow- 
ing is most easily done on unploughed land. Chalk, like burnt 
earth, should be kept near the surface ; it is well therefore to 
give a shallow furrow in early spring, and a deeper one after- 
wards. The usual dressing is, from 50 up to 70 loads per acre; 
the benefit extends over many years, so that the same occupier 
seldom chalks the same field twice ; and his grandson may very 
