apart, and the seed is sown broad-cast, about four or five gallons per acre, and well harrowed in; when the blade appears, and the rows are distinct, the intervals are immediately hoed with a Dutch hoe, and afterwards, in May or June, the hoeing is repeated with a common hoe; carefully cutting up every weed, and thinning the plants in the furrows, if they are too thick. It is cut in the harvest, which is always later than any corn-crop, with a hook, called a twibil, and a hink; by which it is laid in lumps, or wads, of about half a sheaf each.

"The seed clings remarkably to the husk; and, in order to detach it, the crop must be left a long time on the ground to receive moisture sufficient to destroy the texture of the envelopement, otherwise it would be hardly possible to thrash out the seed. The wads are turned from time to time to have the full benefit of the rains and sun; it has sometimes continued in the field till December without vegetating, or suffering any kind of injury.

The produce is from three to five quarters per acre; and it is sold to the seedsmen in London, who send it to all parts of Europe for feeding small birds, which are kept in cages. The offal of this article is a most excellent food for horses."

MADDER.-P. 101. "This is a plant used by the dyers, which has been formerly much cultivated in the eastern part of this county; but I believe is now entirely given up."

TURNEPS.-P. 92. "This plant is more sown with us every year. Thirty years ago, hardly one farmer in a hundred grew any; and now there are few, especially in the upland parts, that do not sow some every year."

This is interesting information; seeing how long turneps have been cultivated, in the adjoining county of Surrey. Thin calcareous soils, it is true, are not favorable to this crop; owing principally, I believe, to a want of room for the tap roots. But, by collecting the cultivated mold into ridgets, in the Tweedside manner, soils of a moderate depth, as four or five inches, will produce tolerable crops of turneps; provided an extra quantity of seed be allowed; this being a boon, I believe, which all calcareous lands, whether chalk or limestone, require. From the circumstance of only one page being bestowed on this valuable crop by a practical man on a large scale, and that page not very intelligent, we may, I think, conclude that, in 1796, the turnep crop might have been deemed an alien in East Kent.

TURNER CABBAGE.-P. 104. "Turnip-rooted Cabbage. This kind was first introduced in general culture by the late

Mr.

this grain cultivated; the common long eared English barley, and the short eared sprat-barley: the latter is only sown on some of the richest parts of the soil, where the common kind is likely to grow too stout, and fall."

On the culture of "Thanet barley," celebrated throughout the land, not a syllable is said!

BEANS.-P. 85. "These are usually either drilled, dropped by hand, or boxed, in furrows eighteen inches apart, from three and a half to four bushels per acre, in February and March; in either case they are generally hand and horse-hoed twice, and sometimes three times, and lastly hand-weeded. The crop is reaped about the end of August or beginning of September, and thrashed by a flail, cleaned with the casting-shovel and spry, and then sifted to take out the dirt and small beans. The produce is from two to six quarters per acre, in proportion to the strength of the land and management."

P. 143. "The bean and pea-crop is invariably horsehoed two or three times; the first, as soon as the rows appear; they are then hoed by the hand along the sides of the furrows, with a plate about five inches wide; as soon as that is done, they are horse-hoed a second time; and if a second hand-hoeing is thought necessary, it is repeated; and then the beans are horse-hoed a third time with an earthing plate, to raise the mould against their stems."

PEAS.-P. 90. "All the kinds of pease are drilled in rows, about eighteen inches apart, from the middle of February till the end of March, and sometimes later, when untoward seasons intervene. These crops are cultivated, during the summer, with horse and hand-hoes, the same as the bean crops; and are harvested from the middle of July till the end of September, as they become ripe. They are reaped with a hook, called a podware hook, and thrashed as other crops of corn. The produce is from one and a half to five quarters per acre. Leadman's Dwarf and the Early Grey pease, are thought to be the most prolific."

CANARY SEED.--This, in East Kent, may be deemed an article of farm produce; and Mr. Boys, accordingly, classes it among "crops commonly cultivated."

P. 91. "Canary Seed. There are three kinds of tilths for this crop; viz. summer-fallow, bean-stubble, and cloverlay; the last the best. If the land is not very rich, a coat o rotten dung is frequently spread for it. Whether manured or not, the tillage necessary is to plough the land the first opportunity that offers after wheat sowing is done; and, as soon as the land is tolerably dry in the spring, furrows are made about eleven or twelve inches

apart

apart, and the seed is sown broad-cast, about four or five gallons per acre, and well harrowed in; when the blade appears, and the rows are distinct, the intervals are immediately hoed with a Dutch hoe, and afterwards, in May or June, the hoeing is repeated with a common hoe; carefully cutting up every weed, and thinning the plants in the furrows, if they are too thick. It is cut in the harvest, which is always later than any corn-crop, with a hook, called a twibil, and a hink; by which it is laid in lumps, or wads, of about half a sheaf each.

"The seed clings remarkably to the husk; and, in order to detach it, the crop must be left a long time on the ground to receive moisture sufficient to destroy the texture of the envelopement, otherwise it would be hardly possible to thrash out the seed. The wads are turned from time to time to have the full benefit of the rains and sun; it has sometimes continued in the field till December without vegetating, or suffering any kind of injury.

"The produce is from three to five quarters per acre; and it is sold to the seedsmen in London, who send it to all parts of Europe for feeding small birds, which are kept în cages. The offal of this article is a most excellent food for horses.' 19

MADDER. P. 101. "This is a plant used by the dyers, which has been formerly much cultivated in the eastern part of this county; but I believe is now entirely given up."

TURNEPS.-P. 92. "This plant is more sown with us every year. Thirty years ago, hardly one farmer in a hundred grew any; and now there are few, especially in the upland parts, that do not sow some every year.”

This is interesting information; seeing how long turneps have been cultivated, in the adjoining county of Surrey. Thin calcareous soils, it is true, are not favorable to this crop; owing principally, I believe, to a want of room for the tap roots. But, by collecting the cultivated mold into ridgets, in the Tweedside manner, soils of a moderate depth, as four or five inches, will produce tolerable crops of turneps; provided an extra quantity of seed be allowed; this being a boon, I believe, which all calcareous lands, whether chalk or limestone, require. From the circumstance of only one page being bestowed on this valuable crop by a practical man on a large scale, and that page not very intelligent, we may, I think, conclude that, in 1796, the turnep crop might have been deemed an alien in East Kent,

TURNER CABBAGE.-P. 104. "Turnip-rooted Cabbage. This kind was first introduced in general culture by the late

Mr.

Mr. Reynolds, of Adisham, in this county, for which he obtained a medal of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Sciences, many years ago. It is a most valuable plant; and every farmer who keeps sheep, should have a small piece to eat off in the month of April, after turnips are gone, and before there is a plenty of other herbage. The severest winters do not hurt it; and it produces a great quantity of nutritive and wholesome food; it is however an exhausting crop, and expensive to get out of the ground; but its great value, as a plentiful supply of good food for stock, when, in some seasons, there is nothing else to be had, is more than sufficient to counterbalance every thing that can be said against it."

I have inserted the above notice, in remembrance that such an article of culture in English husbandry, had its entrée and exit, in the eighteenth century. From what I recollect of the "turnip-rooted cabbage," it is much inferior to the turnep-rooted, or bulbous, rape,-sillily, because equivocally, called "Swedish Turnip,"-as a fallow crop.

RAPE HERBAGE.-P. 93. “ Cole Seed is much cultivated on the poor lands of the eastern part of the county, under the same management as turnips; but it is seldom hoed, and consequently much over-run with charlock. Sometimes, although rarely, it is sown for seed; but is most commonly fed off with lean flocks of sheep."

SAINFOIN.-P. 96. "This is the most valuable of all the grasses cultivated in this county: and is much grown on the chalk-land of the eastern part: it is sown among Lentcorn on clean land, at from four to five and a half bushels per acre; it is mown for hay in June, and its produce is from ten to sixty hundred weight of dried bay, fit to stack, per acre. Those who cultivate this plant should observe, that if it is fed off with sheep, it is very soon destroyed; whereas, if sown on clean dry land, after a good summer-fallow, and preserved from sheep, it will last in the ground ten or twelve years. The aftermath is excellent to feed cattle, and the produce is sometimes very abundant."

GRASS LAND.-General Remarks.-P. 105. "The quantity of land in natural meadow, or upland mowing ground, is very small in East Kent, in proportion to the extent of that part of the county, or in proportion to the bay-meadows of many other counties. The greater part of the hay of East Kent, even that which is used for horses, is produced in the marshes, from a want of a sufficient portion of meadow land."

"The other parts of the county have here and there

small

small parcels of meadow-land, some few of which are of good quality; but in general the hay-meadows of Kent are much inferior to those of many other counties; and this perhaps may be the reason why there is so small a portion of this kind of grass-land in this county.

"Pastures for keeping small dairies are found on every farm; but there are no dairy-farms of any great extent in this county. The farmers in the upland parts, in general, desire no more pasture-land on their farms than is necessary for the keeping a small dairy for supplying their families with milk and butter, and a little fresh butter for sale. Cheese and salted butter for sale, are seldom or never made to any extent. The markets for corn being so exceedingly easy of access, by means of the navigable rivers and the sea, tillage is thought more profitable than grazing on dry lands; which, if they were laid to grass, would produce but a scanty herbage for cattle.

"The downland sheep-walks, which abound on the chalky hills of East Kent, can hardly be called pasture.

"The marsh-lands are situated along the borders of the rivers and the sea-shore. This sort of grass-land is of a very considerable extent.

66

Romney Marsh contains 44,000 acres. Borders of the Stour, about 27,000 acres. Of the Medway, of the Thames, and the Swale, &c. about 11,500. The whole is used either for fattening cattle and sheep, or for breeding of sheep.

"The system of management of Romney Marsh, is that of breeding, rearing, and fattening sheep; the practice of feeding lean cattle, and even fattening some of the smallest sorts of Welch ones, is only made subservient to the principal object, sheep-grazing; merely to take off such grass as runs away from the sheep in a growing time; it is always considered extremely bad policy to see much grass on the land among sheep. Every grazier, whose business is complete, has two sorts of land; namely, breeding land and fattening land. The breeding land is stocked with ewes in the autumn, for the winter: every field has such a number placed in it as the occupier supposes it will keep; which is from two to three and a half per acre, in proportion to the strength of the field.

"In kindly growing summers it is particularly necessary to keep a strict watch on the grass, that it may not run away from the sheep, and to prevent it by adding more sheep, or any other stock that can be had to keep it under; for if it is suffered to run from the sheep, they are much injured, and the grass gets coarse. Upon such occasions, cattle are generally taken into keep at very low prices.

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