) may be
taken to be--Leicestershire, the East Riding of Yorkshire,
Lincolnshire, Huntingdonshire, Rutland, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire
and Cambridgeshire. Those with the smallest proportional cultivated
area are Westmorland, Middlesex, Northumberland, Surrey, Cumberland,
the North and West Ridings of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Durham and
Cornwall. Geographical considerations govern these conditions to a
very great extent; thus the counties first indicated lie almost
entirely within the area of the low-lying and fertile Eastern Plain,
while the smallest areas of cultivation are found in the counties
covering the Pennine hill-system, with its high-lying uncultivated
moors. In the case of Cornwall and Cumberland the physical conditions
are similar to these; but in that of Middlesex and Surrey the
existence of large urban areas belonging or adjacent to London must be
taken into account. These also affect the proportion of cultivated
areas in the other home counties. The presence of a widespread urban
population must also be remembered in the case of Lancashire and the
West Riding of Yorkshire.

Distribution of crops.

The geographical distribution of the principal crops, &c., may now be
followed. The grain crops grown in England consist almost exclusively
of wheat, barley and oats. Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex,
Cambridgeshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire are especially
productive in all these; the North and West Ridings of Yorkshire
produce a notable quantity of barley and oats; and the oat-crops in
the following counties deserve mention--Devonshire, Hampshire,
Lancashire, Cumberland, Cornwall, Cheshire and Sussex. There is no
county, however, in which the single crop of wheat or barley stands
pre-eminently above others, and in the case of the upland counties of
Cumberland, Westmorland and Derbyshire, the metropolitan county of
Middlesex, and Monmouthshire, these crops are quite insignificant. In
proportion to their area, the counties specially productive of wheat
are Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and
Essex; and of barley, Norfolk, Suffolk and the East Riding of
Yorkshire. In fruit-growing, Kent takes the first place, but a good
quantity is grown in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Essex, in
Worcestershire and other western counties, where, as in Herefordshire,
Somerset and Devon, the apple is especially cu