300 
Agriculture of Hertfordshire. 
The old custom of gift-ploughing prevails in many parts of 
the county, to help a new tenant on his entry ; a circular being 
sent to friends anil neighbours to fix the clay. One farmer, 
popular in his neighbourhood, on entering his farm had 145 
ploughs at his gift-ploughing, and more than 100 acres were 
ploughed in the day. 
On the tenure of land little need be said : yearly tenancies 
prevail, and leases are the exception. Yearly tenancies, termi- 
nable at Michaelmas by a six months' notice, are the rule. 
The incoming tenant has the right to make the fallows. The 
notice to quit on the 24th of March is, as regards the fallows, a 
notice to quit the next day. This is an apparent hardship on 
the outgoing tenant, since it deprives teams which he must main- 
tain for harvest and other work, of one portion of their regular 
employment. In practice, however, the incoming tenant finds 
it to his interest to employ and pay his predecessor for making 
the fallow while he, as is proper, has the power of regulating 
the manner in which the work is done. 
An objectionable system of selling wheat, peas, and beans by 
the load of .5 bushels prevails; barley and oats are, sold by the 
quarter. At St. Al ban's there is an inconvenient practice of 
storing in warehouses the bulk of the wheat offered for sale by a 
sample sack in the market ; it is consequently sometimes brought 
back past the seller's door for delivery to the buyer. 
The average crop of wheat on heavy land is estimated at 
25 bushels per acre. This, perhaps, is little better than a guess ; 
yet the statement is concurred in by many informants who aim 
at larger returns. They have not unfrequently added, " We 
ought, with our system, to average 35 to 40 bushels." 
The rents of such land average about 22s. ; tithe rent-charge 
5.v. ; and poor's-rate 3s. Qd. per acre. 
Implements. — Iron-ploughs of modern make are common to the 
light land : in the heavy-land district the Rayne-plough is 
popular. 
The use of carts for harvest-work is so nearly universal in 
this county that a waggon in a harvest-field in Hertfordshire is 
nearly as great a curiosity as a sedan-chair in the streets of 
London. 
A simple lime-sowing machine for destroying slugs in corn, 
invented by Mr. Thrale, of No-Man's-Land, and made by Mr. 
Davis, of Hemel Hempstead, is a good deal in use. It consists 
of a perforated iron-cylinder, in four compartments, to hold the 
lime. As these revolve the abrasion causes the lime to pass off 
in very fine particles. Two bushels of hard, unslacked stone- 
lime are used per acre ; and 10 acres may be gone over in a night 
with one horse. A damp, warm night is chosen, when the slugs 
