The Great Eastern enters the county at Waltham Cross and skirts the whole of the S.E. quarter, running on Essex soil from near the Rye House almost to Sawbridgeworth.  It has stations in Hertfordshire at Waltham Cross, Cheshunt, Broxbourne, Sawbridgeworth and Bishop’s Stortford.  It enters Essex again near the last-named station.  It has also important branches, (1) from Broxbourne to Rye House, St. Margaret’s, Ware, and Hertford; (2) from St. Margaret’s to Mardock, Widford, Hadham, Standon, Braughing, West Mill and Buntingford.

In addition, the Metropolitan Railway has an extension which crosses the S.W. extremity of the county, having stations at Rickmansworth and Chorley Wood.  The Great Northern Railway has a branch from Finsbury Park to High Barnet, with a station at Totteridge.

VII.  INDUSTRIES

1. Agriculture.—­Charles Lamb used no mere haphazard expression when he wrote of Hertfordshire as “that fine corn county”.  Forty years ago the county contained 339,187 acres under arable cultivation, of which considerably more than half were utilised for corn; and the proportion thus used is still much larger than might be supposed. (In 1897 it amounted to about 125,000 acres.) At the same period there were about 60,000 acres under wheat alone; for this grain, of which a large white variety is much cultivated, the county has long been famous.  To this circumstance the village of Wheathampstead is indebted for its name.  Barley and oats are also staple crops.  The first Swede turnips ever produced in England were grown on a farm near Berkhampstead.  Watercress is extensively cultivated, enormous quantities being sent into London from St. Albans, Hemel Hempstead, Berkhampstead, Welwyn and many other districts.  Much manure is brought to the farms from the London stables, and by its aid large second crops of vegetables are frequently obtained.  Clover, turnips and tares may be mentioned among other crops prominently cultivated.  Fruit is also sent to London, particularly from the district lying between Tring, Watford and St. Albans, but none of the orchards are large.

The number of pigs reared in the county is—­or was quite recently—­rather above the average (per 100 acres under cultivation) for all England; the number of cattle rather below, and of sheep much below, this average.

2. Manufactures are fairly numerous.

(a) Straw Plait has for over 200 years been extensively made by hand for the Luton dealers.  The wages earned by peasant girls and women in this employment were formerly high; 100 years ago a woman, if dexterous, might earn as much as L1 a week, but the increase in machinery and the competition from foreign plait has almost destroyed this cottage industry in some districts.  During the last four decades several large straw hat manufactories have been erected in St. Albans, and the trade enlarged, although the conditions of production are altered.