P. 14. The loamy soil is a very dry, soft, light mould, from six to ten inches deep, on a red soft clay, which is good brick-earth, and lies in a stratum of from three to seven feet deep, under which is generally a layer of chalky marl, and then the rock chalk. This soil is very good, ploughs light, and may be worked at all seasons; and preduces good crops, if well managed, of all sorts of corn and grass. "The strong cledge is a stiff tenaceous earth with a small proportion of flints, and, at some places, small particles of chalk: it is from six to ten inches deep, on a hard rock chalk, and is found on the tops of the bills. When wet, it sticks like birdlime; and when thoroughly dry, the clods are so hard as not to be broken with the heaviest roll. It is very difficult to work, except when it is between wet and dry. This land, when well managed, and the, seasons are favourable for the work, produces good crops of wheat, olover, and oats; but when unkindly seasons happen, and dry summers succeed, it is very unproductive. "The hazel mould is a light soil on a clay bottom, more or less mixed with flints and sand. It is dry, and, forms very kindly land for barley and wheat upon clover lays." P. 15. The stiff clay lies on the tops of the highest hills. This soil is generally wet which arises only from the rains in winter; for the springs are above 300 feet deep on the rock chalk. It has at some places a layer of a yellow coToured clay between the surface mould and the rock." "The flat rich lands in the vicinity of Faversham, Sandwich, and Deal, consist of two sorts of soil; namely, rich sandy loam, with a greater or less mixture of sand; and stiff clay, some of which, in the lower parts, is rather wet. The surface of the first is seven or eight inches deep, with a subsoil, varying in depth, of strong loam, clay, or chalk, This soil is always ploughed with four horses;" (yet) "is very dry and kindly to work at all seasons," (!)" and no ridges or water-furrows are required. It produces great crops of wheat, beans, barley, oats, and pease, and sometimes canary and radish. "The stiff wet clay is that which has a strong clay bottom, or any substance that holds water. It lies low, is subject to land-springs, and of close, texture, so as not to admit a quick filtration of water. This, when properly drained, and kept cleaned from ⚫ weeds, and otherwise well managed in favourable seasons, is excellent land, and produces good crops of wheat, beans, and canary; but is generally very expensive to keep in good order." From the sum of these statements it appears, pretty evidently, dently, that the various soils of those districts, as of Thanet, are encumbent on chatk; and that the superiorly productive soils, in the environs of Faversham and Sandwich, are deep calcareous loams, similar to those of the lower margin of the district of Thanet, and of other gently sloping skirts of chalk hills. Soils of the Isle of Sheppy-Sheppy is, still, what Thanet was, formerly, an appertenance of East Kent.-P. 16. Almost the whole of this isle is a deep, strong, stiff clay. Some parts are so very sticky in the winter time, that the plough wheels get loaded with dirt in one mass, so as to form the shape of a grindstone, and are often overturned with the great weight of mould, collected unequally upon the wheels; on which account foot-ploughs are some times used. The horses shoes are frequently torn off, by the hinder foot striking its shoe against the heel of the fore one, before it can disengage itself from the soil. The best time to plough these soils, it is said, is when they are tho roughly wet. Some of the upper parts of the island have a few gravelly fields; but those are very wet in winter, and are rather stiff. The chief part of the upland pasture is ca stiff clay, covered with ant-hills; it is very wet in winter, subject to burn in a dry summer, and to split open to a great depth. The soil of the marshes is also a stiff clay underneath; originally a sediment of the sea. Its surface för an inch or two in depth is a vegetable mould, much enriched from the land having been thickly covered with sheep for a long series of years." SUBJECT THE SECOND. POLITICAL ECONOMY. APPROP PPROPRIATION.-P. 127. "The waste lands, the neglected woods, and the impoverished commons, are striking evidences of the necessity and importance of enquiries like the present; and the legislature will have abundant merit in suggesting to the proprietors of these estates a plan of improvement, from which individuals and the community will derive the greatest advantages. "In the county there are the following commons, viz. Blean Common, Swingfield Minis,' Stelling Minis, Rodes Minis, Ewel Minis, Lenham Heath, a Dartford Heath, Pinnenden Heath, Dartford Brimps, Cox Heath, ... Black Heath, &c. &c. 4.The whole extent of these commons, I apprehend, does not, comprehend more than 20,000 acres. The soil of a few of them cousists of a poor cold loam; of others, of ad wet stiff clay; but the principal part abounds in gravel and sand. They are in general covered with furze and fern, interspersed with patches of grass; and feed some lean cattle and poor half starved sheep.. If they were in a state of severalty, under proper systems of management, they might undoubtedly be made of great value. Inclosures! would do much; industry and due attention to the natural produce, and what has been cultivated on similar soils în other places, would do more.". P 53. "There is no portion of Kent that is, occupied by a community of persons, as in many other counties. Our commons for live stock are generally much covered with furze, thorns, brakes, or heath, with a mixture of plots of poor grass-land; the cattle and sheep feeding upon them, are of course in a half-starved state. The total destruction of all commonable rights, by a general act of parliament for inclosing, is an object, in my humble opinion, of the greatest magnitude to the interests of this kingdom in general, and to this county in particular. There have been some exertions for accomplishing a division and inclosure of an extensive common in East Kent, within these few years; which failed for want of unanimity among the persons concerned." PROVISIONS.-P. 166. "The easy communication between all parts of this county and the metropolis, renders the markets of Smithfield and Mark-lane the regulating me-dium, by which the prices of all kinds of provisions that are sold in the county are governed. If wheat rises 25. per quarter at London, it immediately does the same at all the markets in the county; and if buchers meat is plentiful, and falls in price in Smithfield, it soon lowers in. the country markets." P. 167. "The present prices of Provisions, December, 1795.-Mutton 6d. beef 51d. veal 8d. pork 7d. bacon 8d. butter 12d, and good Cheshire cheese 7d. per pound, of sixteen ounces avoirdupois; potatoes 85. to 10s, per sacks of of nearly 200lb. neat; coals 36s. per chaldron of thirtysix bushels; a half peck loaf of best wheaten bread, 2s.” FUEL.-P. 167. "Coals are brought from Newcastle and Sunderland to all the maritime ports of Kent, and from thence are distributed to the interior parts, seldom exceeding 30s. per chaldron in time of peace. "Faggots of wood are found in plenty in the western and middle parts of Kent." MANUFACTURES.-P., 173. "The manufactures of this county are very trifling; probably owing to the successful attention generally paid to agriculture and grazing. It has been observed by sensible writers on agriculture, that where manufactures most flourish, the land is most neglected; and this county is an instance of the truth of the observation. There is hardly any county to be named where agriculture is arrived at such perfection, or where there are so few manufactures as in this. There are some, however. At Canterbury, silk has been manufactured to a considerable extent; but it is now giving way to cotton." "At Dover and Maidstone, are manufactories of paper, of all sorts. At Stoner, near Sandwich, and the Isle of Grain, are salt-works. At Whitstable and Deptford are large copperas works; and in the Weald of Kent, bordering on Sussex, are furnaces for casting iron. "Gunpowder is made at Deptford and Faversham; and at Crayford there are large works for printing of callicoes, and the whitening of linens." POOR RATES.-P. 39. "The expences of the poor vary so exceedingly in the different parishes throughout this county, that it will be impossible for me to make any exact report on this subject. Some parishes expend no more than 6d. in the pound on their rents, while many others exceed even 5 or 6s. It is a general complaint, that these expences are annually on the increase." TITHE.-P. 34. "In the Isle of Thanet, the whole of the rectorial tithes are collected, but the vicarial are chiefly compounded for; part is neither collected nor compounded at present, nor has been for some years, owing to a litigation about the right to the tithe of turnips, &c. In the eastern part of the county, the rectorial are almost invariably paid in kind, and the vicarial mostly compounded for, excepting in some instances, where there are disagreements between the vicars and their parishioners. "The rich lands about the towns of Faversham, Sandwich, and Deal, have their tithes chiefly collected. In the Isle of Shepey, the same." Nevertheless, in a note p. 37, a clergyman asserts, somewhat sophistically, "There are very few instances of the POLITICAL ECONOMY. Chart Leacon, 194 Langley Heath,000 ph Dartford Brimps, Slobin bes aidh Cox Heath,unsepdT Black Heath, &e. &eu P. 53. There is no portion of Kent that is, occupied by PROVISIONS. P. 166. "The easy communication betweends P. 167. The present prices of Provisions, December, 1795.-Mutton 6d. beef 51d. veal 8d. pork 7d. bacon 8dala butter 12d, and good Cheshire cheese 7d. per pound, of sixteen ounces avoirdupois; potatoes 88. to 10s, per sackros of |
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