340 WOODLANDS IJV SUSSEX AND KENT. [Maech 



WOODLANDS IN SUSSEX AND KENT. 



THE following by H.'E., -which we slightly abridge, appeared in 

 The Field : — 



Sussex formerly included six forests within its confines, and it 

 still possesses a larger area of woodlands and coppice than any 

 other English county. The growth of hops occasions a market for 

 underwood, and promotes good management. The total area of 

 the county of Kent sHghtly exceeds a million acres ; hops cover 

 42,000 acres, and the extent of woodlands and coppices is about 

 eighty-three thousand acres. It is worthy of note, too, that in 

 Kent, underwoods are cultivated expensively but profitably on land 

 worth 30 s. an acre to rent, while in Scotland woodlands generally 

 have been created upon barren moorland, worth nothing to plough, 

 and only a shilling or two for grazing. In Sussex, the woodlands 

 cover 113,000 acres, the hops between nine and ten thousand acres, 

 the total area of the county being 931,000 acres. Hampshire is 

 another county well provided with woodlands, of which it has 

 105,000 acres, with a total area as great as that of Kent. These 

 are the three best wooded counties in England, having from 10 to 

 1 2 per cent., in wood and coppice ; while Essex, with its one million 

 and odd acres, has only 27,000 in woodlands, or about 2^ per 

 cent. ; many other counties having much the same proportion, and 

 England generally having about 1,500,000 acres of woodlands, 

 and a total area of 32,597,398 acres, the percentage of woodland 

 amounting therefore to about 4j. 



I think I have now shown why, in considering the subject of 

 woods and wastes, special reference should be made to the three 

 best wooded counties in the country, especially as there are poor 

 clays in each of them, which are paying a fair rent in wood, and 

 which, at the present price of corn, would certainly lie in waste if 

 they were not in wood. The demand for hop poles has no doubt 

 occasioned an extension of the underwoods. Millions of hop poles 

 are grown, but for many years past several industries have flourished 

 which require large supplies of wood, and a large demand for 

 different kinds of wood produce has been developed from beyond 

 the boundaries of the counties ; and the reason why Kent, Sussex, 

 and Hants are better able to satisfy such a demand is, that the 

 management of woods is better understood here than elsewhere. 



Hoops for casks, delivered in London by the load of thirty 

 bundles, are very largely grown. To enumerate some of the less 

 important kinds of timber trees and their uses, beech is used for 

 furniture and articles of domestic use, such as brush backs and 



