pease, is very dear, the farmers often let their workmen have a reasonable quantity at an under-price. This tends to keep up a mutual good understanding between the farmers and their labourers."

WORKING ANIMALS.-In a section headed, "Horses, and their Use in Husbandry, compared with Live Oxen,"-we have the following information.

P. 158." The great supply of draught-horses is from the midland counties, brought hither while colts and fillies, by dealers who attend the fairs and markets.”

P. 156. "There are many very fine teams, each consist`ing of four horses, in the hands of the farmers of the Isle of Thanet and East Kent, some of which were bred here from a sort that has been long established; and others are a cross, between the old Kentish cart-mares and stallions from the midland counties, or half-bred Flemish ; and within these few years, there have been several very good mares brought from Flanders, which have cost from 261. 58. to 421. each. Black is the favorite colour; and there are but few of any other; they are from fifteen to sixteen hands and a half high, with much bone, and good action. They plough with four in winter, and work an acre and an half in a day; and in barley-season with two, and then plough two acres a day, with a mate to lead the horses.

"Many farmers have great pride in their fine teams; which are often too fat to do the quantity of work in a day they ought.

"In the Isle of Shepey, the horses for the plough are bred principally from a sort that has been in the isle time out of mind."

IMPLEMENTS.-Plow.-P. 45." The Kentish turn-wrest plough is almost the only one used or known. Some few instances of trials of the Suffolk ploughs, which go with two horses abreast, and are driven by the ploughman, occur, but they have not been found to answer the purpose of the farmers of this county, and are in consequence laid aside for the native implements; which, for all sorts of soils, and all required depths of ploughing, is the best I have ever seen and tried."

P. 46. "This implement, altogether, is most certainly a very heavy one, and, from its construction, must be made very stout; as otherwise either the beam or chep will break with the force of four strong horses, when it comes suddenly against a rock, or any stiff place in the soil, a hard beaten path, or root of a tree, &c. It is remarkable for going well among flints and rocks. With these ploughs the soil may be turned up a great depth, and laid quite flat,

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without any kind of furrow being left open; which is a great advantage in a dry soil. They cost, with every kind of tackle fixed for drawing them, entirely new, about 57. 58. each.

"With these ploughs four horses are generally used in East Kent; and there an acre and a half is the common day's work, a little more or less, in proportion to the stiffness or lightness of the soil: but in the western part of the county, from the tenacity of the soil, it is necessary to make the ploughs much stouter, and to use six horses, the plough there being drawn by a long large iron link, called a tow, which comes from the axle of the carriage round the heel of the plough. In that part of the county they seldom plough more than an acre in a day, and sometimes not half so much, even when six horses are employed."

Yet this enormous implement-more like a cart than a plow, when seen at a distance is the idol of the men of Kent! Let me not be misunderstood.-No man can be more aware, than I am, of its use, in plowing the sides of steep hills; also in working strong deep soils, in which flints or other stones are firmly bedded, especially when such land is worked out of season; also in turning under, and hiding, a foul surface for a crop; an operation, this, however which ought rarely to be attempted. But to employ it, in cultivating the level, free-working lands of East Kent, is a species of idolatry which nothing but blind bigotry could tolerate.

To wean the Kentish plowmen from the worship of their "native implement," let a Kentish wrest, instead of a mouldboard, be placed on an English plow; with which, in the East Kent lands, one of the four elephantine horses, now employed, would make equally good work; in lands, I mean that are kept in a due state of tillage.

"Bavin Tug."-P. 49. "In the Weald of Kent, carriages, called bavin tugs, are chiefly used for faggots; and many use them for corn and hay. They carry 150 faggots; each four feet long, and three girt. The hind and fore wheels are fourteen feet apart; by which the length of the carriage is so much, that the load lies very low, and is thereby less liable to be turned over; which otherwise would often be the case in the roads of the Weald:"--And, by the great distance between the wheels, the load is more easily drawn across sloughs; the four, unless where sloughs are very wide, being seldom "mired" at the same time.

MANURE. Species.-P. 138. "The sorts of manure commonly in use in this county, are dung, sheep-folding, chalk, turf-ashes, soot, coal-ashes, sea-weed, woollen-rags, and

lime; with a variety of other manures, too numerous and trifling to be particularized in a general report."

Dung.-P. 139. "Dung of horses, cattle, and hogs, is mixed together in large heaps, and laid in the fields intended to be manured, usually on a layer of fresh earth, a foot or two in depth, dug out of hedge-rows, waste banks, or useless spots of land. When the heap of dung is made up, some persons give it a covering of mould; and it is an excellent practice to keep it moist, and prevent evaporation. After it has lain a month or two to ferment, it is trenched over at the expence of 3s. 6d. per hundred cartloads; and then, after lying a few weeks longer, it is fit for use."

Sheepfold.-See Sheep, ensuing.

Chalk.-P. 139. "Chalk is used to great advantage as a manure on some wet, stiff soils, having no calcareous. earth; in quantity from fifty to eighty cart-loads per acre. Its beneficial effects are said to last twenty years, and the value of it is often estimated between outgoing and incoming tenants, when lately laid on, as high as 51. per acre."

Ashes.-P. 140. "Turf-ashes, if spread on poor chalky thin lands for turnips, at the rate of about twenty cartloads of thirty bushels each per acre, will seldom fail to produce a good crop : and it is well known, that if once a good crop of turnips can be obtained on such poor lands, a good foundation is laid for future improvements.

"Turf-ashes are often used for wheat, and sometimes for other crops; but there is no application of them so advantageous as that of using them for turnips."

Sea Weed.-P. 141, "This is a most excellent manure, being a mass of vegetable matter, strongly impregnated with salt. Immense quantities are sometimes thrown by the winds and tides on the shores of Thanet; from whence it is carted through sloping passages in the cliff to the land.

"When a quantity comes ashore, after a gale of wind, the farmers set all hands to work, to get as much as possible while the tide serves, lest the next should carry it away; and if it happens in the night, they work at it then till stopped by the waters coming on. Some farmers will get up in one tide two or three hundred cart loads. Those who live at a distance, hire small spots of land, of a few perches, to lay the fresh weed upon as they get it; and carry it away to the farm at a more convenient opportunity. It sometimes comes ashore in quantities that amount to several thousand cart-loads; and perhaps all swept away by the next tide. The principal method of

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using it, is by mixing it in layers among the farm-yard dung in the mix-hills. It is of great use in helping to rot the dry part of dung carried out of the farm-yard in summer." This is not a common, but may nevertheless be an eligible, method of using this valuable species of local manure.

Lime.-P. 77. "The tenants" (in the Weald) "are bound to lay one hundred bushels of lime per acre on the fallows for wheat; and generally put on double that quantity.

"This lime is made of chalk, from the hill before mentioned," (Middle Kent hills) " and is brought from the distance of twenty miles to some of the parishes, though there is excellent limestone in the centre of the Weald; and even in the parish of Bethersden, famous for a fine limestone, called Bethersden marble, chalk-lime is preferred; and the chalk to make it is procured from a considerable distance. Chalk-lime is applied to stiff clay-lands, and stone-lime to sandy soils."

I insert this notice, though I may not implicitly rely on its authenticity. It is (with its tautology) twice inserted in this Report. The close of it, if correct, is interesting.

TILLAGE.-Fallowing.-P. 57. "On the cold stiff lands on the hills running across the county, from Dover to Wrotham, fallowing for wheat every fourth year, is the general practice. In East Kent, fallows are always made on poor lands, more or less, as occasion requires; in some cases, to get the land clean from weeds; and in others, where weeds do not abound, to make a good tilth for a crop of wheat, if a stiff, and barley, if a light soil. On the very worst soils, where wheat is never sown, fallows are frequently made for oats or barley, and for getting land into fine tilth for rye-grass, or other seeds.

"In the Isle of Shepey, fallows are made every six or eight years for wheat; and in the Weald of Kent, the farmers are bound by the covenants of their leases to make summer-fallows, and to lime for wheat.

"On the clay and stiff soils of West Kent, fallows are usually made for wheat; and in all parts of the county where sainfoin is intended to be sown, a good summerfallow is invariably made by the best husbandmen.

"When any kind of soil has borne three or four crops of corn in succession, and is become full of weeds, a well made summer-fallow is certainly requisite, not only to destroy the weeds, but likewise to meliorate and invigorate the soil: it is the most certain cure, the speediest, and, in the end, the cheapest."

P. 83. "Many writers on husbandry recommend drilling,

with a view to keep the land clean by hoeing, and thereby supersede the necessity of making summer-fallows: but those authors should recollect, that if all the crops were drilled, it would require more than treble the present number of husbandmen to perform the operation of hoeing them; and therefore summer-fallows must be continued, until the population is sufficiently increased to clean the land without them."

This is a new argument, in favour of fallowing. But it is not of much force. For it were as easy to cure a scabbed sheep with simple water, as to clean effectually foul arable lands, such as require a summer-fallow-with the hoe;-be the state of population what it may.

ARABLE CROPS.

SPECIES.-P. 79. "The crops most commonly grown in Kent, are wheat, barley, beans, oats, and pease; also hops, canary-seed, radish-seed, turnips, and colewort: these are the principal ones, and are found almost on every farm, having a soil adapted for them."

WHEAT.-Barn Management.-P. 83. "The thrashing of wheat is performed with a flail on an oaken floor on most farms of 80%. rent and upwards; but on smaller farms, on an earthern floor."

Thrashing Mills.-P. 50. "The first, and I believe the only threshing mill in the county, is at Betstranger, which I erected about three years ago."

Winnowing Wheat.-P. 84. "It is universally in Kent, cleaned with a casting-shovel, and flat broom, called a spry, which sweeps off the chaff and white coats with the small pieces of straw that fly among the corn. This method of cleaning corn is certainly the most expeditious and best, where the barn-floor is large, and of a sufficient length: but in a small room, the winnowing machines will do it better, and perhaps cheaper."

Produce of Wheat.-P. 84. "In any county like this, where the soil is so extremely various, it is impossible to make any accurate estimate of the produce of the wheat crop. There are many situations where two quarters per acre are a very good crop; while double that quantity on some others, is but a very indifferent one: twenty-two bushels per acre may probably be nearly the annual average growth."

This produce does not corroborate the repeated representation of the pre-eminent state of husbandry in Kent. It is barely, I apprehend, the medium produce of the kingdom, at large.

BARLEY.-P. 84. "Barley. There are only two sorts of