HEREFORDSHIRE, an inland English county, boanded on the north by Shropshire, east by Wor cestershire, south by Gloucestershire and Mon mouthshire, and west by the Welsh counties of thecknock and Radnor. Its greatest length is thir ty-eight, and its greatest breadth thirty-fne miles. It is nearly of a circular form ; but the dividing lines are broken by many itidentaticms. Its circum ference is 120 miles, and its square area 1221 miles, hi 781,440 statute acres.
It is divided into eleven hundreds, containing one City, seven towns, and 221 parishes. By the census cif 1811, It appeared to have 19,296 houses, inhabit ed by 20,081 families. The inhabitants were 94;078, of 46,404 were males, and 47,669 females,. The marriages, in the preceding year, were 668 ; the male baptisms 1858 ; the female 1308 ; making together 2656. The male deaths were 858, the fe male 832, making 1685. The number of famRies subsisting Prom agriculture were 12,599 ; those on trade and manufactures were 5044, and the others were 2488.
The face of the eointtry is very beautiftil, when viewed from the western 'descent of the Malvern hilts. The whole country is rather thickly inclosed with high hedges; the divisions of the fields are ge nerally small; and the abundance, both of forest and fruit trees, with which its surface is covered, gives it the appearance of an extensive wood. The roads are all narrow and bad, and even the turnpike ones are scarcely an exception.
In the eastern side of the county, a part of the Malvern hills is rather barren, as are the Hat terel or Black, Mountains, which divide it from Wales on the west. With the exception of these two portions, the whole of the land is highly fertile, and the fields are clothed with perpetual verdure. The soil is generally a mixture of marl and clay, but contains calcareous earth in various proportions in different parts. Towards the western part, the soil is tenacious, and retentive of water ; the eastern side is principally a stiff clay, in many places of a red colour. In the south, some of the soil is a light sandy loam. The subsoil is almost universally lime stone; in some parts a species of marble, beautifully variegated with red and white veins, and capable of receiving a high polish. Where the soil does not rest on limestone, as near the city of Hereford, it is sometimes a siliceous gravel, and occasionally fuller's earth• and yellow ochres are found. The climate is
rather more inclined to rain than the more eastern parts of England, and at times is much subject to damp fogs, which moisten the earth, and may be one cause of its great verdure.
One cause of the neglect manifested in the culti vation of corn may he the attention paid to the growth of hops and fruit. The cultivation of hops is considerable, and increasing on the borders of Worcestershire, and much more of the manure is applied to them than to the corn. The soils selected for hop gicrdens are those where a dry loam predo minates, withbut a small proportion of clay, and old pastures are deemed more fit for them Than the land that has been recently under the plough. The time df plimthig them is usually the mouth of April. h July the gardens are hoed carefully, and the same operation is repeated five or six after; and in September the earth is formed litto hillocks around the roots of the young plants. 'The 'hops are picked from the plants in Octdber, are then ,gently dried in a kiln, and packed for sale. The average produce of an acre of garden is about five hundred weight of hops. Each acre requires 1000 poles, around which the plants entwine themselves. The cost of poles, of manure, and of labour, makes the cultivation highly expensive, and in some years far to exceed the amount of the produce, but in others the growers gain very large profits. The whole is a very specu lative pursuit.