external appearances. The total area of England and Wales is about 371⁄2 million acres, of which 27 million is under crops, fallow, and pasture, while the remainder is occupied with orchards, market gardens, woods, plantations, uncultivated lands, roads, etc. The crop of which there is the greatest proportion is, of course, wheat, in which certain counties excel more than others, though no county in the kingdom has quite half in wheat. It must be remembered, however, that the quantity of land given up to wheat cultivation is fluctuating, and shows a tendency to decrease, farmers finding it more profitable to grow cattle than corn; and one reason, perhaps, which has contributed very much to this is, that America, Austria and Hungary, Russia and Australia grow and send over to us such immense supplies of wheat every year, that it keeps the prices down and makes our bread cheap. Half the wheat grown in the United Kingdom is grown in eleven counties, viz., Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Kent, Hampshire, Sussex, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire; and nearly one quarter of the whole is grown in three counties-Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and Essex; Lincolnshire, indeed, reaps and thrashes above one-fifth more wheat than all Scotland and Ireland put together. The average yield of English wheat is about 30 bushels to the acre, which is higher than the yield of other European countries, Holland being 281, Belgium 20}, France 13, Hungary 82, Russia 5, which shows how much is due to equable climate and good cultivation. The crops which characterise our chief counties are as follows:-Kent is watered by the Thames, Medway,

Swale, Rother and Stour, and produces cereals, viz., wheat, barley and clover, with extensive gardens of hops and fruit. Middlesex is principally noted for its market gardening and fruit growing; and the same may be said of Surrey, in which, however, some wheat of excellent quality, together with hops, is produced. Sussex, with its downs, is more of a sheep farming county. Hampshire grows roots, clover, beans, wheat and turnips. Wiltshire and Dorsetshire are very similar, though they do not contain such good land. Devonshire is principally famous for its cream, its cattle, and its cider, and Cornwall for its potatoes. Somersetshire and Gloucestershire both show many varieties of soil, and are great wheat-growing counties; while Herefordshire, famous for its cider, produces a fair amount of corn and a good proportion of hops. It is also celebrated for its fine breed of cattle. Oxfordshire has several varieties of geological formation, and grows the usual cereals. Shropshire, from its neighbourhood to the Welsh borders, is well adapted for sheep farming and root crops. Warwickshire possesses a good deal of very fertile land on the New Red Sandstone, and, besides the ordinary farming crops, produces quantities of vegetables for the manufacturing districts of Birmingham and Staffordshire. In the eastern counties we find a somewhat different state of things, the climate being drier. Essex is noted for its root crops, while the neighbourhood of Romford sends great quantities of vegetables to London. Norfolk is one of the best farming counties in England, and is especially noted for its light land husbandry, its barley, its sheep farming, and bullock feeding.

Both in Essex and Norfolk agriculture is carried on in the most scientific manner, and all the newest systems and appliances are sure to be found in these counties. Suffolk is of more ordinary character, though possessing a good many varieties of soil and surface. Lincolnshire is by nature not so good an agricultural county as the others, owing to its having such extensive barren heaths and flinty wolds in one part, and so much marsh-land in another; but draining operations have been carried on so extensively, and waste land reclaimed and so splendidly farmed, that Lincolnshire is now one of our best wheat-producing counties. In its extreme north-west is a peculiar district called the Isle of Axholme, where spade husbandry is principally practised, and great quantities of vegetables are grown for Sheffield and other markets. Yorkshire is of such enormous size that it presents entirely different outlines of country and soil, and almost different climates, the East Riding being drier and clearer than the West, because the latter catches the rain from the Atlantic; but, on the other hand, the East Riding suffers from the cold winds of the German Ocean. The Wold district, in this Riding, is noted for its large farms and extensive flocks of sheep, while the Vale of York produces wheat, oats, beans, etc., and the district of Holderness, a good part of which has been reclaimed from the estuary of the Humber, is noted for its wheat crops. Some flax is also grown here. The North Riding is characterised by limestone fells and rich grass-lands in the vales beneath. The West Riding, being so much given up to manufactures, is not a very great agricultural district, though the usual

crops are grown in it, together with a few special ones, such as potatoes, near Goole and Selby, and liquorice, near Pontefract; while teazle for the use of the cloth districts, and woad for dyeing, are grown along the sides of the Ouse and Trent. A considerable amount of potatoes is grown in Cheshire for the Manchester market, though, as a rule, Cheshire is the great dairy farming and cheese making county of England. Dairy farming is very much increasing in Great Britain, and it is a very valuable and productive branch of agricul ture. We possess, roughly speaking, about 2 million cows, the most noted breeds being those of Norfolk, Ayrshire, the Channel Islands, Hereford, Sussex, Devonshire, Galloway, Wales, the Scotch Highlands, and County Kerry in Ireland. Of course, wherever there are rich grass-lands and sufficient attention is paid to the breed of cows, there will be dairy farming; but as an industry we shall find it principally in Cheshire, Staffordshire and Gloucestershire. Cheese making is, ordinarily speaking, carried on, more or less, in most farming counties; but certain localities, such as Cheddar in Somersetshire, Stilton in Huntingdonshire, and Coverdale in Yorkshire, are celebrated for their special character of cheeses, and in North Staffordshire and Derbyshire quite a new system has been adopted from America, of the farmers co-operating together and having their cheeses made in a factory, as a separate industry.

FOOD AND DRINK.

IN the previous chapter, we showed the different localities which provided us with our bread and meat. Fruit is a considerable item in the industries which affect our provisions, and in England and Scotland there are about 157,000 acres given up to this branch. Apples and pears for eating, as also for cider and perry-making, are principally grown in the counties of Hereford, Gloucester, Worcester, Devon and Somerset, the annual average yield of apple returns being about 200 bushels per acre. Kent is famous for its cherries, damsons, plums and greengages, and immense quantities of gooseberries and currants are grown in Kent, Worcestershire, and Gloucestershire, and sold for preserving. Filberts and cobnuts are another specialty of Kentish produce; Cornwall is noted for its raspberries; while strawberries are cultivated in enormous quantities in the market gardens of Middlesex, Surrey, Kent, Devonshire, Cornwall and Worcestershire. Wales is not much of a fruit-growing country, except for cider apples. Scotland grows great quantities of strawberries, gooseberries, currants and damsons, the chief fruit-counties being Perth, Lanark and Edinburgh. The consumption of fruit is so largely increasing, however, that we are obliged to import very largely from the Continent, while canned fruit is also sent to a considerable amount from Canada and America.

Over 38,000 acres are cultivated for vegetables; and as the neighbourhoods of our large towns get built