As already mentioned, the greater portion of Hertfordshire, that is to say, most of the chalk area, exclusive of the downs, commons, woods, and private parks, was in former years devoted to corn, for the cultivation of which its soil is particularly well suited. Indeed the county had the reputation of growing not only the best barley for malting, but likewise the best wheat-straw (that is to say, the hardest and whitest) for plaiting. The wheat itself was also of specially good quality and hardness, and there was likewise an abundance of mills in which it could be converted into flour. A noteworthy feature of Hertfordshire agriculture is the practice of mixing chalk with the soils, especially where they are clayey; this resulting in a decided increase in fertility.

A century and a half ago wheat, barley, and oats formed the chief cereal crops; beans being better suited to the Vale of Aylesbury, while peas are profitable only on the very light chalky grounds. Clover, lucerne, trefoil, turnips, and (in later times) swedes and mangold are also extensively grown. In this connection it is interesting to note that the first crops of red clover and of swede turnips ever grown in this country were sown at Broadby Farm, near Berkhampstead; a spot celebrated in literature as having been the home of Peter the Wild Boy in 1725. A certain amount of grass land was intermingled with that under cereal and root cultivation; while, as mentioned in earlier sections, most of the heavy land in the south and south-east of the county is under grass.

“Hertfordshire farming,” observes a recent writer, “has undergone little material change since Ellis’s description of it in 1732; the hay-crop has become a more prominent feature perhaps, potatoes on the lighter soils have gained a leading place in the rotation, and the standard of fertility has been raised all round; otherwise a farm on the high chalk-plateau was farmed in 1732 pretty much on the same lines as it is to-day. Ellis gives a list of the chief weeds, ‘crow-garlick, wild oat, carlock, poppy, mayweed, bindweed, dock, crow-needle, black bent’: they are not less troublesome nor any nearer extinction at the present time, the last grass in particular being very characteristic of corn-land on the ‘clay with flints’.”

Every year the Board of Agriculture publishes a return in which the number of acres in each county devoted to each particular kind of crop is duly recorded, the classification adopted being as follows, viz.: corn crops; green crops; clover, sainfoin, and grasses for hay; grass not for hay; flax; hops; small fruits; and orchards. Such land as produces none of these crops is classed as bare fallow, of which Hertfordshire in 1905 possessed 14,275 acres.

Of the total of 402,856[2] acres in the county, 329,641 were under cultivation in that year; 1917 were orchards, 26,568 were woodland, while 1657 acres consisted of heaths and commons used as grazing-grounds. At the same date there were 116,700 acres under corn-cultivation; that is to say, something approaching one-fourth the total acreage, against about one-seventh in Kent. Green crops accounted for 32,702 acres, while of the remainder there were 36,831 under clover, sainfoin, and grasses, 3315 under lucerne, meadows claimed 54,589 acres, pasture 70,678, and small fruits 544. Of the corn-grazing area, wheat occupied 51,691, oats 36,946, and barley 27,960 acres.

It is thus apparent that out of the 329,641 acres of cultivated land no less than 200,000, or more than half the whole area of the county, and about 60 per cent. of the total farming land, was still under the plough; this large proportion being at the time exceeded only in six English counties. The increase in permanent pasture has, however, been steadily progressing since the great fall in the price of cereals in the seventies; this being aided by the improvements in the means of communication throughout the country, which have tended to rob Hertfordshire of its original special advantage (owing to its proximity) in the matter of supplying the metropolis with corn and straw.

The subject of Hertfordshire agriculture cannot be dismissed without mention of the fact that the world-renowned agricultural station at Rothamsted, in Harpenden parish, founded and endowed by the late Sir J. B. Lawes, is included within its limits. This includes a laboratory, under a Director, situated on the west side of Harpenden common, and certain plots of land in the park at Rothamsted where agricultural experiments have been carried on for more than sixty years. The whole station is administered by a committee, mainly appointed by the Royal Society.

Fruit is grown only to a comparatively small extent in Hertfordshire. Very characteristic of the county are, however, the orchards (now for the most part more or less neglected) of small black cherries, known as Hertfordshire blacks, and also as “mazzards,” which are situated near the homesteads of most of the older farms. These are probably a cultivated variety of the wild black cherry of the neighbouring woods.

On the rich-soiled, low-lying lands of the Lea valley on the south-eastern side of the county are situated numerous market-gardens and nurseries. The growing of tomatos (at Harpenden), cucumbers, and grapes under glass is carried on in several parts of the county on a more or less extensive scale.

Elm, oak, beech, and ash form the most common timber-trees of the county, but the predominance of each kind in particular districts depends, as already mentioned, on the nature of the geological formation. The undergrowth in the woods, which should be cut every 12 or 13 years, consists mainly of hazel.

As regards the number of the larger and commoner kinds of domesticated animals, sheep in 1905 reached a total of 94,461, or about 234 to every 1000 acres; the average for England generally being 445 per 1000 acres. The prevailing breeds are the Hampshire Down, the South Down, and the Dorset; the latter being favoured on account of their early lambing.

Hertfordshire is not a great horse-breeding county, and in 1905 the number of these animals was only 15,070. Cattle numbered 38,636, and pigs 25,338. Shorthorns are the favourite breed of cattle among the farmers; and although in the chalk districts the soil is not specially well suited for dairy purposes, farms near the main railways despatch a considerable amount of milk to London. The number of horses was nearly the same as in 1901, but cattle showed an increase of nearly 2000 head. Sheep, however, had decreased by over 2000 and pigs by more than 6000.