KENT. 11 



Kent, 



In the richer parts of the county of Kent, proceeding by 

 Dartford and Rochester, we found wheat- harvest begun. 

 Here the scythe is used for cutting down the corn crops ; 

 and in level fields, mowing seems much more convenient 

 and expeditious than our Scottish mode of reaping with the 

 hook. Accustomed as all of us had been to see Small's 

 plough, with two horses managed by one man, employed in 

 tilling the heaviest clay soil, we were not a little surprised to 

 observe a team of four strong horses, with a ploughman, and 

 the appendage of a driver, engaged in merely turning over 

 light land in a state of fallow. We had scarcely finished 

 our remarks on this curious exhibition, when we noticed 

 three horses yoked to a drill-machine (apparently sowing 

 turnips after pease), where certainly one horse would have 

 been amply sufficient. We are certain that there was no- 

 thing in the soil, — a light loam, incumbent on gravel and 

 chalk, — or in the inequalities of the surface, requiring such 

 a power of horses, and are persuaded that this expensive 

 and wasteful practice is to be ascribed only to inveterate 

 habit. 



The hedges are in general of hawthorn (Mespilus oxy- 

 acantha). They seem in many places much neglected, be- 

 ing allowed almost to run wild, and often to become choked 

 with climbing plants, such as traveller's-joy (Clematis vital- 

 ba), bryony (Bryonia dioica), and convolvulus (C. sepium). 

 If in this favoured district, such hedges be found sufficient- 

 ly effective as fences, the traveller has evidently an interest 

 in preferring them : they certainly improve the landscape of 

 the country, and are more pleasing to the eye that delights 

 in the picturesque. 



Many of the plants which now appeared most common 

 on the road sides, arc of rare occurrence in Scotland. In 



