154 ARBORICULTURE OF THE COUNTY OF KENT. 



Except tlie marshes along the Thames and the south coast, no 

 part of Kent is level ; the Weald is a succession of low hills 

 rising gradually to the height of 400 or 600 feet above the 

 sea. From these heights the rich tree-covered "Weald is of extreme 

 beauty, the quick-set hedges which enclose the pasture-fields and 

 hop-gardens, the hedgerow trees, and the apple and cherry or- 

 chards, make the country look like one garden, and Kent may 

 justly claim to be the garden of England. The hop, for which 

 this county is so celebrated, covers from 95,000 to 100,000 acres 

 of soil, and is the most valuable crop. 



Kent must have been at some remote period covered with 

 vast forests of primeval oak, for throughout the county the oak is 

 the predominating tree, except on the chalk formation, where 

 beech luxuriates. Larch and Scotch fir frequently grow tolerably 

 well on the chalk formation, where the chalk is not near the sur- 

 face, but I have never seen large fir trees on chalk. Scotch fir is 

 only planted for ornament, as so far from coal mines there is no 

 demand for such timber. The acorns dropping from the oak trees 

 in October readily germinate, and in summer the woods are covered 

 with young oaks, most of which are soon smothered with the thick 

 coppice. In autumn large herds of swine are to be seen attended 

 by a boy, which live on acorns for several months ; and men, 

 women, and children, out of employment, gather the acorns, and 

 sell them for feeding swine at Is. per bushel. Against the oak, 

 which at one period covered the county, there has been a constant 

 warfare waged by man, clearing woodland for pasture and agricul- 

 ture, and, above all, for the cultivation of hops. Even in the pre- 

 sent generation large qiiantities of woodland have been cleared, and 

 we now find that woodlands occupy a small percentage of the 

 former area. 



Before the introduction of hops into England in the beginning 

 of the sixteenth century, the forests were purely of timber, but 

 after hops began to be extensively cultivated, the demand far ex- 

 ceeded the supply, and proprietors found that the cultivation of 

 coppice for hop poles paid better than the growing of timber. This 

 great local demand has steadily increased, till it has now become 

 the primary object of arboriculture in the south-east corner of 

 England, by the oak trees being severely thinned, and chestnut 

 and ash planted instead, so that he who plants may often reap. 

 Contrasting the acreage of woodland and coppice, now only 78,000 

 acres, out of 990,480 acres which the county contains, and that the 



