The Express.
London, England, 1850-09-24 00:00:00

I too sandy it is
i tile.

1 of being tendered very for-

I found many of the farmers cm thin formation
hataMed with apprehensions that the clover and
turnip ems, if repeated too frequently, would fail,
end undoubtedly such failures are not unknown,
bat my imprestion is they are mon due to
want of audition in the laud than anything
else. The following 0011120 wee mentioned
with mach apprual, as providing against such
fillers,: I. fallow; Z. wheat; 3. beans, peas, or ter-
abit; 4. oats; 5. tares; 6. wheat; 7. sleds; 8. eat&
IAO cultivation will prevent the necessity of such
liugthenad- Potations, and will allow ram frequent
rep eltices of the same crop ; and I observe that the
prattles of most of oar best farmers proves that
simpler rotations are most soconsful. Hope are
largely cultivated in the Huang' sand district, and
mere plantations hays of late Tsars been formed on
the weak! clay alter drainage, for a dry soil is essen-
tial to hops. The "grape" and "Jones's" hops are
chiefly grown in this district ; and the " Colgate*
hop has lately cores a good deal into use. This is a
smaller and later hop than the others, but is hardy
and when quite ripe produces a good sample.
The exposes of hop cultivation I mentioned
in a former letter from Mid-Kent, and there
is nothing peculiar to the hop cultivation
of this district, except that it seems to wait that ex-
=nsataeMwhich was its characteristic in Mid-
And here I think it does often occur that the
kisorgerden robs the rest of the farm, without afford-
ing tits farmer any sufficient remuneratioe for his too
reclusive attention to its suitupe. But even loss I
me so meson for giving up hop culans. Certain
farms and particular farmers would no doubt be as
well, perhaps better off; without hop-gardens than
with them • but that arises mainly tram the unsuit-
ableness of the soil or the want of capital on the part
of the tenant. Generally, hops on the weald are not
quite so precarious as the more dant ate growth of Mid
Kent, and they never occupy so large a portion of a
weald farm as they do in " the garden of Kent."
Upon the whole, my impression is much more favourable
to hop culture u a source of profit in husbardry since
I have inspected the hop districts and convcreed with
hop-grower upon their farms. Most of the intelli-
gent lumen, though admitting the precarious nature
of the crop, and deploring the losses which occasion-
' ally happen, declare that their hop cultivation is in a
sines of years a source of considerable profit.
There are some cattle reared on the weal!, chiefly
the large red Sussex breed, a hardy sort, which,
when well fed, attain large size. They are, how-
ever, slow feeders and large engineers. As work-
ing oxen they cannot be excelled. I believe that
if this breed had received the same attention as
short-horns or Devon. have had from their respec-
tive breeders, they. would have been tound ca-
of immense improvement. Mr. S. Settles, at
Beckley, ou the borders of Sussex, is the most cele-
brated breeder of this *took ; and as I intend to
visit his herd before I leave this part of the country,
I shall defer until that occasion all general remarks
on Sussex cattle.
There are some good farmers on the weald, and
especially on the sand division, and considerable im-
provement has taken place of late years throughout
the district. Snufflers and cultivators have of late
been a good deal employed on the stubblee in autumn
by means of which winter tares have been grown ex-
tensively. Drilling too hi,' extended, as has also the
growing of roots. Draining too is itcreesicg ' • and
throughout the weald draining is much wanted. Even
in the Hastings sand district there are such frequent
beds of clay that there are few fields in which some
springy places do not require to be laid dry ; while on
the weald clay every acre must be drained before it
can be much improved. But to successful &sleaze
the small fields and numerous trees offer
almost insuperable obstacles. It is estimated
that one eighth part of the arable land
of the weald is occupied by hedges and trees, allow-
ing for their shade and roots. Fields of three, four,

and five acres abiand, and a larger one is rather i
rarity. Here four horses at length are usually worked
in ploughing, and it may easily be conceived in what
a state the heavy wet headlands on which they turn
must be in wet seasons. Sometimes after a year's
fallow, and a dressing% of manure, the cold adhesive
land, stint in from light and air, cannot be sown, and
becomes, as it is emphatically called, a "lost fallow."
The corn near the hedges is small, much devoured by
birds, and in stormy harvests soon sprouts ; and it is
stated, as I believe truly, that there are many thou-
sands of sores on the Werad of Kent which cannot, in
their present state, be cultivated without en actual
loss : yet this is all good cornbearing land, and might
be made to yield of most sorts of grain
a fall average of the kingdom. A striking
illustration of the disadvantage at which this
land Is farmed as oomparcd with the more
fertile land of Mid Kent has come under my observa-
tion. About twelve years ago a man left two estates
—one of 150 acres on the green sand formation in
Mid Kent, the other on the weald clay; containing
300 acres. The two properties were deemed of about
equal value, and each of his two sons was to take one
of the farms, the eldest having the first choice. He
selected the green sand farm of 150, which he has
ever since occupied with advantage to his fortune.
The other brother also occupied the clay farm, culti-
vating ft according to the ordinary system of the dis-
trict ; and, after struggling with difficolti4s for years,
the farm has been sold for a sum that will not much
more than pay his debts. The fatal error was to
allow high hedges and trees to grow around the
arable land. And this is the prevalent mistake of the
district. There is much broken ground, and innume-
rable ravines in this district, where wood and wood
alone can be profitably grown ; and there are eaten-
sive plantations in which timber and hop poles yield a
larger revenue than could be derived from the land in
any other way. But hedge-row timber is generally
knotty and stunted, and can never be profitable to the
owner, while it is absolutely destructive to the tenant.
In order to improve this district threeloorths of the
hedge-rows ought to be grubbed up, all the hedge-
row timber removed, and then deep and effective
draining executed ; webers no hesitation in saying that
in a few years,by such means followed by good colder
tion,the vales of mooli of the land of this district might
be doubled, and the timber which now cumbers and
shades the ;mod would go far to pay for the ame-
lioration. Hitherto shallow draining has been most
used when the land'has been drained at all ; but lat-
terly thee, and four feat drains have been laid with
so much benefit, that the plan of deep draining bids
fair to become general. I everywhere saw tile yards
:I=llmp help of draining pipes. These rpm
two Miss in diameter, are sdld for from
12s. to Ile. per timisaad ; and in soils free from
atom drabs three het deep an be cut for ed. per
rod. The hem ea the weald of Kent are commonly
email, mea of Om not exceeding 50 arms; but
ben, se the consolidation of small
farms, whoa, iiskieging to tie same owner,
is going ea. Rests are low, varying on
the larger estates from Bs. to 18e. per acre.
and from 3s. to 7a. per acre for tithe. Tenants usually
hold their farms from year to year. But what re-
deems this district, and, notwithstanding its many
disadvanteges, gives its forms an appearance of com-
fort sad i is the number of small free-
Mai by the owners. His land may not be
aHeated,
t his fields may be as small, his
Y hlkb sad reds, and the timber almost ea ro-
se the farmed his large landowner, but there
is shoat the home of the yeoman farmer evideace of
care sad &amnion, a something eluding deaerip-
don, which tells that it is his own. One polle-
n= panted oat to me a stank of ()un-
cut ertaillellta tali "more than 200 years
old, sad to the EMIR is which his own improve.
meats nag misnames harmonised with the sanest
cbarester of hiedwelling, with a degree of pride and
satiotaseha millenellift by the nominal or encumbered
owner of a vast &mem. And when, he added,
after retards, to the sabstantial state of his old
bulldogs, and the well executed new ones he had
wasted, that after ail to had done in the way of im.
be had sued a considerable sum of money
=lTilt" s Negation of his farm, I could not help
eenemsder the evaditioa of such a yeoman proprietor
with that of. territorial magnate, whose large estate,
loaded with debt sad lettered by entail, soared
affords him the mom of heaping up appearances.
believe that an malabwed estate bell would promote
as meek impersonal I. England as it is likely to do
in Ireland, and sot the heat of such improvements
would be the Mates of the number of holders of
moderate sine landed estates.
A MIDLAND COUNTIES FARMER.

were neared ay
yesterd at the Colonist
0111. ralltbre Gammon of Ceyleajeltreee, sad ta• Norte
Asierisse Ceisaiss.