Agricultural Notes on Hertfordshire. 
most men. We will not assert that in all cases his conclusions 
were sound or his judgment unimpeachable, but even his blun- 
ders, if he eommitted.any, have tended to the benefit of agricul- 
ture by exciting discussion and criticism." * 
The above passage aptly characterises his 'Report of Herts,' 
which mainly embodies the opinions of the leading farmers, 
amateur or professional, of that day. Drill husbandry, the culti- 
vation of the Swede turnip, the substitution of the Southdown for 
the long-legged Wiltshire sheep, were then leading subjects 
for discussion ; and it is remarkable that the introduction of 
improved implements and practice rests throughout this Report 
with amateurs, whilst the management of the most common and 
essential operations of husbandry in the present day will be 
found to be completely at variance with that of some of the best 
practical farmers who gave information to Arthur Young. 
The name of Mr. T. Greg, of Coles, near Westmill, often 
quoted by A. Young, deserves a passing notice. Prompted by 
Mr. Coke's (Lord Leicester's) example, Mr. Greg first undertook, 
by the aid of Hill's scarifier, to apply, to his own wet tenacious 
clays the principles of Norfolk husbandry. He abolished the 
bare summer fallow, ploughing but once for a crop, and that 
only in winter, using the scarifier, the drill, and the horse-hoe 
freely to complete his operations. 
In proof that improvements in husbandry were early intro- 
duced into Hertfordshire, A. Young, quoting Mr. Rooper, of 
Jicrkhampstead, says that clover and turnips were supposed to 
have been introduced by Oliver Cromwell, who " gave a farmer 
named How a 1007. a year on that account," and that there had 
been little change in the course of cropping for one hundred 
vears. 
The climate of England, though it may have undergone some 
changes, must be essentially the same as when Fuller said of 
Hertfordshire, " It is the Garden of England for delight ; men 
commonly say that such as buy a house in Hertfordshire, pay 
two years' purchase for the aire thereof;" — a salubrity due to the 
geological condition of the greater part of the county, gravel 
upon chalk. 
Rainfall and Percolation of Wateb. 
The following tables of rainfall and mean temperature were 
kindly furnished by those gentlemen by whom the registry has 
been kept. The column Dalton's Gauge, under the head 
"Hemel Hempstead," refers to a rain-gauge, suggested by Dr. 
Dalton and kept at Apsley Mills for twenty-nine years last past, 
* Vide Kirwin, ' Irish Transactions.' 
z 2 
