BAD SEASONS 61 



looked very bulky they were not healthy crops. Only 

 grass and turnips were really good, and they to little 

 purpose, for the prices of Kent sheep, either as 

 stores or as mutton, had never before been at such 

 a low level. Indeed, Kentish farming generally was 

 a little below the weather at that time ; the bad hop 

 years had left the whole countryside poor, tradesmen 

 as well as farmers, and for several seasons fruit- 

 growing had not been a very paying business. What 

 with late spring frosts and rain when the cherries 

 were swelling, the weather had taken charge at the 

 most awkward moments, with the result that crops 

 had been poor and irregular and prices low. At the 

 time of our visit very few of the growers hoped to 

 do more than pay their way ; only in a few cases were 

 cherries good, plums were scarce, and most varieties of 

 apples only bore the sparsest of crops. With hops 

 and fruit and sheep doing badly together, nearly all 

 classes of farmers were hard hit : and Kent more than 

 any other county was in need of a turn of the wheel 

 and an improved regulation of the weather. 



