94 
Fruit-growing in Kent. 
that have been grubbed since the Saxon period. Mr. Furley 
mentions that the Isle of Thanet, now an open tract of fine 
arable land running out to the North Foreland, was formerly 
covered with timber.* The removal of these great forests and 
woods, which has gone on steadily since the date of Magna 
Charta, has let the cold winds and sea breezes from the north- 
east and the south-east, sweep directly over the unsheltered 
land, chilling the air and lowering the temperature. 
Although Humboldtj held that extensive forests are among 
the causes tending to lower the temperature of a district, it by 
no means follows that their clearance would ensure an increase 
of temperature. Dr. J. C. Brown, in his recent work entitled 
' Forests and Moisture,' has shown that disforestation makes a 
country more dry, and that planting gives a country humidity ; 
but he has not shown that a climate has been altered in respect 
of heat or cold, in its mean summer temperature, either by dis- 
forestation or by the planting of trees. 
Fruit-plantations and orchards in Kent have been planted and 
replanted, grubbed and regrubbed, most promiscuously during 
the 300 years preceding this generation, to make way for hops 
when that very uncertain crop was profitable, as well as after 
successive large growths of fruit, which from the then com- 
paratively limited demand, and the heavy cost of conveyance, 
barely paid expenses. Foreign competition, it is true, was 
insignificant, with regard to soft fruits, as cherries, gooseberries, 
currants, until within the last 40 years ; yet there was no trade 
with the thickly populated towns in the north of England and 
in Scotland, until railways had made the carriage of goods cheap 
and expeditious. Since the development of the railway system, 
there have not been such capricious alternations in the fruit- 
growing acreage, which has been steadily increasing. 
In the parts of the county suitable for fruit-growing, almost 
all the farms have a certain proportion of fruit-land, as a hedge 
against the contingencies of hop-growing. The profits of fruit- 
growing are not so large as those of hop-culture in good seasons ; 
on the other hand, the chances of possible losses are not nearly 
so great. Men may make or lose fortunes by hop-cultivation ; 
but fruit-land of fair quality will show a steady remunerative 
return upon an average of many years. During the last 10 
years, much land has been planted with fruit in the north- 
western part of this county, between Orpington and Crayford. 
Large woods of poor quality, which grew birch, beech, and 
other trees of low value, have been grubbed there, and planted 
with plum, damson, and apple-trees, gooseberry and currant 
* Furley's < History of the Weald of Kent.', f Op. cit, p. 326. 
