IVealden Clay of Sussex. 193 



To what causes, then, is this state of things owing ? Clearly 

 to bad management of both landlord and tenant. 



The Weald abounds in beautiful scenery, and certainly this is 

 much owing to its being so thickly Avooded, for the trees in leaf 

 in a country of hill and dale have a beautiful appearance, but to 

 the farmer they tell a tale of smothered crops and half-filled 

 barns. An American gentleman, well acquainted with country 

 matters, on first seeing the Weald in the spring of 1849, ex- 

 claimed, " All this shows a very low state of agriculture ! " 

 Since this observation was made, I have seen many shaws cut 

 down, grubbed, and cultivated, and many small fields enlarged 

 by throwing down useless fences. 



Where the oak woods of the Weald are left in large masses, 

 they interfere little with the common course of husbandry, but 

 where trees are left standing in shaws and hedgerows, they 

 destroy thousands of acres, so far as the farmer is concerned. In 

 the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal, vol. vi., Mr. Grigor 

 estimates the unnecessary fences in the county of Norfolk as 

 taking up full 32,000 acres of land ! I know of no estimate as 

 to the loss of land in Sussex, but that it is very great no one 

 can help seeing who has kept his eyes open in passing through 

 the Weald. 



In some pans of England hedgerow timber is grown at the 

 expense of the tenant for the benefit of the landlord, but here it 

 is grown to the injury of both parties. A crop of timber comes 

 but once in a lifetime, and now sells so low as to make it a 

 wretched investment for money. A crop of coppice-wood may 

 in 7 years sell for 5/. an acre, whereas the same land if well tilled, 

 limed, and manured, would produce in the first year four quarters 

 of wheat per acre. Many parts of the Weald have been covered 

 with oaks from time immemorial, and it may be fairly said that the 

 land is now sick of the crop, as it would be under any other 

 system of constant cropping with the same plant, and consequently 

 tiiere are thousands of oaks to be seen in Sussex which have no 

 vigour of growth. All trees are here cut down with the saw, 

 and the stump, though quite level with the ground, is called the 

 stem. This stem throws up shoots all round; the strongest is fre- 

 (juently left, and the rest cut off with the bill-hook. In time 

 this shoot becomes a worthless tree, called a " 5^e?72?7zer," which 

 after a fev/ years' growth stands still ; yet such may be seen on 

 many estates, though they have paid nothing for thirty years' 

 growth. 



The elm seems quite at home on the oak-tree clay, and both 

 lime and beech grow well on it, but not so either the ash or the 

 sweet chestnut. Pines and firs seem to grow but slowly, and 



VOL. XIX. 



