"A very few oxen are fattened, which are bought in from the plough-teams of the wealds of Kent and Sussex, They are very large, and have a reserve of the best grass to themselves. From their size, they require a longer time to get fat than the smaller sorts: they usually weigh from forty-five to seventy score each.

"Some of the other marsh-lands of Kent are used nearly in the same manner; others are grazed by Welch bullocks for fattening and in some parts the graziers buy the lean sheep from the flocks of East Kent, and fatten them for Smithfield, or other markets.

"The land of this county is seldom changed from mea. dow to arable, or from arable to meadow. The dryness of the soils of the upland parts of the county, occasions the land to be but badly adapted for meadow: when once a field is become a good old meadow, it is held sacred; and it is a common covenant in leases, not to break up old grasslands."

In this, as in the preceding article, we find much valu. able information compressed within a moderate compass. For other remarks on the grass lands of Kent, see Livestock ensuing.

The Downs, or chalk hill Grass, of East Kent.In speaking of the arable management of "chalky soil", Mr. B. says, incidentally, p. 64. " much of it is down-land, or sheep. walks; some of which (although no very material part) has been so time out of mind; and some tenants are restrained (very injudiciously) from breaking up those old downs. The practice has been chiefly, when old sheep-walks have been ploughed up, to do it in wet weather, in the midst of winter, when other arable lands are too wet to work with advantage; and the principal inducement has been that of employing the teams when they would probably be doing mis. chief on better soils."-A rueful employment!

Hops. This is the least estimable article of Mr. Boys's Report. How a man who had, at the time of writing, "about twenty acres" of hops under his care and manage ment (N. p. 188.) could send to the Board of Agriculture so flimsey and incorrect an account of their culture, is not readily to be imagined. In an Appendix to the reprinted Report is inserted a paper; headed thus: (p. 186.) "A Note on Hops, by a Gentleman stiling himself a Middle Kent Farmer; inserted in the Margin of the Original Printed Manuscript, circulated for Remarks and Observations by the Board of Agriculture."

In this paper we find some traits of the Middle Kent practice, with a few general remarks on "Hop Farms"; together with many a keen remark on the inaccurate ac

count

count given of the Middle Kent hop grounds; in Mr. B.'s "original Report."

ORCHARDS. Nearly the same remark might be made, respecting this other article of culture, for which Kent has long been celebrated. But, in this case, an excuse may be pleaded. East Kent, the Faversham part of it excepted, is not a fruit country. But for the errors and defects of the Reporter's account of the orchard management of the County at large, that circumstance is no atonement. For the culture and management of orchards and hops, in middle Kent, see my SOUTHern Counties.

LIVESTOCK.

A section, headed "Feeding," that is to say fatting, in which cattle and sheep and the nature and management of fatting land, or "grazing grounds," in various districts of the County, are so intimately blended, so undigested, and indigestible,-that I have deemed it expedient to bring the whole of it forward, in this place.

P. 110. The system of grazing in the marsh-lands of the Isle of Thanet and East Kent, is generally to buy in lean cattle and sheep, and keep them till they are fit for the butcher. The cattle are principally bought out of the Welch droves, and the sheep from the fold-flocks in the vicinity.

"The grass that is mowed for hay is usually set up in stacks, either in the marshes near a foddering-lodge, or carried home to the farm-yards on the borders of the marshes, and given to fattening bullocks, or sold to the inn-keepers at Margate or Ramsgate.

"The grazing in East Kent, on the upland farms, if it may be called grazing, is that of feeding flocks of lean sheep on the downs and seeds, folding them every night. These are bought in wether-lambs in August, and sold out lean, when about two years and a half old, to the fattening graziers. Some farmers of late years, by sowing many turnips, make their wethers fat, and sell them to the butchers in the spring.

"The upland pasture is wholly employed in breeding lambs, or feeding young lean sheep. These fields are generally so poor, as to keep only one or two breeding ewes per acre, or two or three tegs.

"The inferior parts of the marsh-land are used in the same way; but the best fatten a great number of sheep, and many head of cattle.

"The feeding of the grass-lands of the western part of the county, is done in various ways. Some have dairies of

six or eight cows, which are of mixed breeds, between the Staffordshire, Welch, and Sussex.

"Some of the small dairies of three or four cows, have the Welch sort only; and there are farmers who fatten a few Welch cattle on the best of their meadow-land with hay and grass in the winter.

"A flock of sheep under a shepherd, and folded at night, is a very rare sight in West Kent; it is only a very few of the largest farmers who follow that practice.

"Many farmers of this district have small parcels of different sorts of sheep, chiefly either Wiltshire or South Down, for feeding on such grass land as is not used for the dairies, or fattening cattle.

"The grazing of the Weald of Kent, is to rear young cattle, which are put out to keep to the Romney-Marsh graziers in the summer. In the autumn, they are taken home to the layers and inferior grass-lands; and in the winter to the straw-yards, or stay out on rough lands, and have straw carried to them; when they are of age to fatten, which is at four years for steers, and three for heifers, they have the best grass with hay. That which is made of rye-grass and clover, is given at the first part of the winter; and the best hay of the farm is used to finish them. Old meadows are always mown for hay to fatten the

oxen.

"The inferior pastures are stocked, first with milkingcows to take off the head grass, and afterwards with the lean cattle, or working oxen. A suit of fields are thus fed in rotation during the summer.

"A great number of Romney-Marsh lambs are taken into keep in the winter, on the stubbles, old layers, and meadows; the price of keep is from 2s. to 2s. 6d. per score, per week. These lambs are returned the 5th of April, and in bad winters, frequently go home nearly starved; from which they sometimes die in great numbers when they get into good keep. Great losses are likewise often sustained after a wet autumn, by the rot.

"The layers of rye-grass, and clover, are mown for hay, which is used for the plough-teams and lean cattle; and some of the best is given to fattening bullocks in the beginning of the winter. The old meadows produce great crops of hay, which is of a very fattening quality. Bullocks fed thereon, frequently weigh from forty to forty-five score each; and some old working oxen attain the weight of sixty score, and sometimes much more. The fat oxen are commonly sold between the months of March and June. The sale of them is the chief dependence of the Weald farmers for payment of their rent, and other heavy expences."

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On the Intercourse of Districts, in regard to Livestock. -P. 149. (Section " Cattle") "The cattle which are fed in Romney Marsh, are taken into keep chiefly from those farmers who keep lambs during the winter. Thus, by a temporary exchange of stock between the farmer and the grazier, each party is accommodated; for if the grazier could not put out his lambs in the winter, he must alter his present system of grazing; and the upland farmer would be very much distressed with his bullocks in the summer, when his pastures are reserved for hay, or fed with his dairy. The farmer keeps the lambs about thirty weeks from the beginning of September; and the grazier keeps the bullocks about twenty weeks from the middle of May.

"Some graziers buy Welch calves in the autumn, put them out to keep in farm-yards for the winter, and in the spring place them among their sheep, where they get fat in a few months, and weigh from eighteen to twenty-two score each.

"A very few oxen are fattened, which are bought in from the plough-teams of the wealds of Kent and Sussex : they are very large, and have a reserve of the best grass to themselves. From their size, they require a longer time to get fat than the smaller sorts: they usually weigh from forty-five to seventy score each."

CATTLE. Breed.-P. 147. "This not being a dairy or grazing county for cattle, we have no particular breed that may be allowed the appellation of Kentish Cattle. The sort bought in by graziers to be fattened for sale in the marshes of East Kent, are from North and South Wales, which are brought by the Welch drovers to Canterbury and other markets; and the chief part of the dairy-cows are selected from those droves: others are a mixture of those and home-bred cattle, of various sorts and shapes. The principal object as to a cow here, is the giving a large quantity of milk. If a cow, though ever so ugly, is a good milker, and produces a cow calf, it is often reared for the dairy."

Stallfatting of Cattle.-P. 150. "Before concluding this section, it may be proper to observe, that farmers at different parts of this county have been, and still are, in the habit of fattening oxen, and other cattle, in stalls, on potatoes and hay, or straw; others on turnips and cabbages, and hay or straw; and likewise on oil-cake and hay. By these means the cattle are frequently made very fat: but it is generally observed by the most experienced men, that this system is not profitable, the chief advantage being that of raising a supply of good manure for the arable lands: a consideration, which by some is not thought to be of suffi

1

cient importance to pay for the risk and trouble of attending stall-fed oxen.'

For Field Fatting, see Livestock, above.

SHEEP. Breed.-P. 150. "Kent has long been famous for a fine breed of sheep, called in the county, Romney Marsh Sheep; but in Smithfield, where great numbers are sold every week, Kent Sheep. They are remarkable for arriving at an extraordinary degree of fatness at an early age, and for producing a large fleece of very long fine wool. These circumstances combined, render this perhaps the, most valuable of any breed in the kindom, not excepting the famous Dishley sort, whose wool, confessedly, is very

coarse.

"Their carcases and legs are rather long, and bones large, in comparison with some other breeds; they have no horns; and their faces and legs are white.

"The fat wethers at two years old, weigh from twentytwo to twenty-eight pounds per quarter.

"Their wool is the combing sort of the first quality," (?) "being very long and fine; the fleeces of the young sheep are about five pounds weight, those of the ewes six, and the fattening wethers eight or nine pounds each. This Marsh is supposed to produce twenty pounds of wool per acre, which, for 44000 acres within the county, is 880,000 pounds of wool, or 3666 packs per annum, But as the greater part of the land has above four sheep per acre at shearingtime, and as the average weight of the fleeces is certainly above five pounds, the annual growth of this Marsh, in the county of Kent, is probably full four thousand packs.

"This is the principal sort of sheep kept in this county. There are, however, many of the upland farmers who keep those of Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and the South Downs."

P. 152. "Almost the whole of the sheep kept on the upland farms of East Kent, are the true Romney Marsh breed; whose carcases and bones being large, and wool long and heavy, they require rich land and good keep to make them fat. It seems quite contrary to reason and nature that they should be equally adapted to rich marsh-land and poor chalky downs; and consequently they are not so fit for this district, at least the chalky part of it, as the South Down sort, whose natural soil is a fine turf on chalk. hills. Impressed with this sentiment, the surveyor himself has, for these seven years past, kept no other than South Down sheep, and has every reason to be satisfied with them; his flock is about 1000;-400 of which are breeding

ewes.

"The sheep in the Isle of Shepey are of the Romney Marsh sort, true Kents. The soil being much inferior to

Romney