34 ON THE PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS OF 



moisture. Siddon Hill, the natural termination of the Hampshire 

 downs, is 1000 feet above the sea-level, and the highest point of 

 the county. It consists entirely of chalk, through which water 

 percolates freely. The hill is clothed with timber, and on the 

 summit a water pond has been constructed by excavating the 

 earth, and puddling the chalk. From this pond the principal 

 supply of water is derived for the stock of a farm of 1000 acres. 

 In seasons of severe drought, when all the ponds on the lower 

 grounds are exhausted, the farmer has, in this pond, an apparently 

 inexhaustible supply. Although in continual requisition, the 

 " oldest inhabitant " cannot remember seeing it empty, and yet it 

 is fed exclusively from the atmosphere and the leaves of the sur- 

 rounding trees.* This favours the growth of trees in districts 

 where agriculture suffers from long-continued aridity. 



In fertile plains, where hops are cultivated, large tracts of land 

 are planted with larch, Spanish chestnut, and ash, which are cut 

 at four, six, or eight years old, according to the rate of growth 

 and the size of poles required. This description of produce is 

 confined almost exclusively to East Hants, and is grown on the 

 green sand or gault formation. It is generally produced in large 

 enclosures without timber ; but when a plantation is converted 

 into a hop-pole coppice, few trees are allowed to remain. No 

 planting for hop-poles is admissible under the shade or drip of 

 timber trees. The system of growing this crop has changed con- 

 siderably. Formerly, the custom was to depend entirely upon 

 larch, which was planted in the same ground for an indefinite 

 number of crops. Sometimes they were planted at 2 feet apart, 

 and allowed to grow undisturbed until the whole was large enough 

 to cut. The poles were then arranged in lots according to size, 

 and exposed for sale. At other times they were planted closer, 

 and the small poles thinned out from time to time as the state of 

 the growing crop required. Whatever system was adopted, the 

 ground was always trenched when the crop was cleared, and 

 replanted with larch. This system no longer prevails in the hop- 

 growing districts of the south. In many large woods, where hop- 

 poles are cultivated, larch planting is discontinued. Trenching 

 after each crop was found expensive ; and unless the larches for 

 replanting were well rooted and specially attended to, one year's 

 growth was lost when they were transplanted to the open ground. 



* Though we believe there is a spring, the argument in favour of trees is 

 correct. — Ed. 



