7181 BARTON, W. W. & A. T. Machinery for shearing sheep.

2665, 6510, 8938, 9186, 9431, 9592, 9999, 11177, 11262, 11311, 11546, 11584, 11587, 11707, 12435, 12546, 12813, 13039, 13552, 13773, 14068, 14426, 14525, 14869, 14893, 15412, 15564, 16185, 16520, 17560, 19954, 26108, 27054.

Specifications of 1899.

87, 122, 2363, 2619, 2651, 2661, 3195, 3261, 3288, 3561, 3829, 4277, 4378, 4437, 4459, 4875, 4921, 5778, 5876, 5948, 6128, 7053, 7058, 7196, 7238, 9120.

1 Copies may be obtained at the Patent Office (Sale and Store Branch), Quality Court, Chancery Lane, London, E.C.

As the annual Country Meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society was held this summer at Maidstone, the county town of Kent, it seems suitable that an account of the agriculture of the county should be given in the Journal of the Society while the recollections of the visit are still fresh in the minds of its members. It will also be useful and interesting to have a description of the leading features of the agriculture of Kent at the present time, and a record of the changes that have taken place since the prize essay on "The Farming of Kent," written by Mr. Buckland, appeared in 1845, in the sixth volume of the first series of the Journal, which is the only description of the agriculture of this county that has been given in its pages, though accounts of the Fruit Farming and Hop Farming of Kent were published in the sixth and thirteenth volumes (1870 and 1877) of the second series.1

On the Cultivation of Hops, by Charles Whitehead, F.L.S., F.G.S.; Fruit-growing in Kent, by Charles Whitehead, F.L.S., F.G.S.

VOL. X. T. 8.-39

GG

Besides the changes that have taken place since Mr. Buckland wrote in 1845, due to the alterations and improvements in agriculture more or less common to the whole country, there have been great changes consequent upon the low prices of farm produce, especially of wheat, in Kent as well as in all other counties. When Mr. Buckland's essay was published more than half a century ago, Kent was a large wheat-growing district, and was celebrated for fine wheats which had special market quotations, and were sought for by millers. Only 53,494 acres were sown with wheat in 1898, and it is seen, on an examination of the returns of the Board of Trade and the Board of Agriculture for the last thirty years, that the reduction in the acreage sown with wheat has been greater than that of the average of the other English counties. In 1868, 110,720 acres of land were sown with wheat in Kent according to the Board of Trade returns, or more than a tenth part of the land in the county.

The following table shows the areas of land sown with various crops in Kent in the years 1868 and 1898:

In 1868 the total acreage of land under corn crops was 246,305 acres; while in 1898 there were only 155,004 acres sown with these crops. In 1868 there were 15,814 acres of bare fallow and only 8,029 acres in 1898, and the figures given below show that there has been a considerable increase in the quantity of grass land.

1868

1898

Permanent pasture

Clover and other grasses under rotation

1868 to 96,927 acres.

Woodland has increased in extent from 78,000 acres in Ash and chestnut plantations have been made by several large landowners, and larch fir has been planted to some extent for hop-poles.

During the last thirty years large additions have been made. to the acreage of land planted with fruit trees and fruit bushes. There were 25,050 acres of orchards and 22,080 acres of small fruit in 1898; but it is difficult to state the actual increase since 1868, as no returns of fruit land were given until 1872, and in the last three or four years separate returns have been made of fruit land under the heads of orchards and of small fruits. It is estimated, however, that since 1868 the whole area of fruit land. in Kent has more than doubled.

The extent of land used for market gardening in Kent has enormously increased since 1868. Here again there are no returns reliable for purposes of comparison, as it was found impossible to differentiate between the market-garden acreage cultivated by bona fide market gardeners and by farmers; but it is believed that at least 20,000 acres are devoted to the production of vegetables, salads, herbs, and flowers.

Owing to the low prices obtained for hops in recent years, the acreage has diminished, having been 30,941 acres in 1898, as against 38,606 acres in 1868. The largest hop acreage in Kent was in 1885, when there were 44,834 acres.

It would be naturally thought that with so large an addition. to the grass land there would be found a somewhat proportionate increase in the number of cattle and sheep, but it will be seen below that the former have only increased by 13,950 head, while sheep have decreased.

Of the increase in cattle it would be expected that dairy cattle would form a large portion, although Kent is by no means a dairy county. Accordingly, the numbers of cows and heifers. in milk show a difference of 6,257 head; the figures being 26,919 in 1868, and 33,176 in 1898. The falling off in the sheep stock of the county is due without doubt to the losses sustained by the farmers since 1879, and to the want of capital to keep up the farm stock to the capabilities of the grazing area. This area has been extended mainly on account of the impossibility of making the heavier and poorer arable land in the county

It should be stated that the proportion of the number of sheep in Kent per 1,000 acres in 1897 was 957, or a larger proportion than in any other English county.

pay for cultivation, and not a small part of it has "laid itself down," or has been converted into grass land by simple and inexpensive processes. Upon the stiff clay in the Weald of Kent, the poor light soils on the Chalk in parts of East Kent, and the stiff marls on the Chalk in districts in East Kent and North-west Kent, indifferent pasture has, in some degree, taken the place of plough land. Landowners who have had farms thrown on their hands in various districts have also put land down to grass as the only possible means of avoiding heavy losses upon it, even in the better soils, in some instances.

Horses have diminished in number since 1868 on account of the lessened area of plough land and the extended use of traction engines. In 198 the extent of land under crops and grass was 748,957 acres, of which 561,250 acres were held by tenants, and 187,707 by owners. Much of this land occupied by owners is farmed by them compulsorily, on account of the failures of tenants and of inability to replace them, and the amount of land thus held by the owners has increased nearly 20 per cent. in the last ten years. The small landowners have in most instances been compelled to sell their land, and the yeoman of Kent has practically disappeared, so that there is, unhappily, no longer any application in the time-honoured Kent proverbA knight of Cales,

A gentleman of Wales,

And a laird of the North Countree,

1

A yeoman of Kent,

With his yearly rent,

Will buy 'em out all three.

There is another rhyme as to yeomen of Kent—

All blessed with health, and as for wealth,

By Fortune's kind embraces

A yeoman grey shall oft outweigh

A knight in other places.2

GENERAL FEATURES.

The county of Kent is about 40 miles in width between the extreme north and south boundaries, at Gravesend and Tunbridge Wells. In length, taking a straight line between Ramsgate and Beckenham, it is about 60 miles. It has exceptional facilities for the transport of agricultural produce by two

1 Yeoman is derived from gemein, the German for common. A yeoman is essentially a commoner. Lambarde has it that yeoman comes from yemen, the Saxon for common.-Ray's Kent Proverbs.

2 A Collection of Proverbs and Old Sayings which are either used in or relate to Kent, by Samuel Pegge, A.M.