112 
Fruit-growiny in Kent. 
cherries grown in Kent has been about 8s. per sieve. Deducting 
an average cost of 2s. Sd. per sieve from this price for all 
expenses after the fruit is grown, a balance of 5s. 4rf. per sieve 
is shown. The highest prices made for cherries during the 
period alluded to were in 187G, and the lowest in 1875. And 
it is curious to note that, in spite of foreign competition, the 
average price per annum obtained for Kentish cherries during 
the last ten years is nearly Is. per sieve higher than the average 
of the preceding decade. 
All cherries, except the Flemish, Kentish, and Morello 
cherries, which are used for tarts, preserves, and liqueurs, are 
bought by fruiterers and costermongers for retailing and hawking 
for eating purposes, as they do not make good jam. 
Filberts. 
The filbert, Corylus avellana — a corruption of " full beard," 
as it was originally styled, to distinguish it from smaller 
nuts, — so highly appreciated at dessert, is cultivated extensively 
in the neighbourhood of Maidstone. It is not grown to any 
extent beyond a circuit of 7 or 8 miles round that town, 
though there are a few plantations at Ightham, about 13 miles 
north-west of it, and in the West Kent fruit-growing district. It 
does well upon the best soils of the ragstone, but thrives exceed- 
ingly upon the Atherfield clay, locally called the " coomb," which 
has been described as follows by a practical farmer : " There is 
a very narrow belt of land running along the escarpment of the 
ragstone, which, though of a very heavy and adhesive texture, 
is astonishingly productive in hops, fruit, and grain."* The 
situation best suited is a southern slope, sheltered from rough 
winds, which are apt to snap off the delicate shoots in the early 
spring and bruise the blossoms. Filbert-trees are always grown 
on cultivated land, planted under standard apple, pear, and plum 
trees. Fruit-bushes are generally planted as well. Filbert-trees 
are set about 13 feet apart, giving 257 trees to the acre ; and 
are invariably propagated by suckers obtained from old trees, 
and put in nurseries until they are two or three years old, being 
carefully pruned and trained to the required form. The first 
operation in an established filbert-plat is to open a small trench 
round each tree, to get the suckers or " spawns " from off the roots 
and lower part of the stems. Rags, shoddy, fur-waste, sprats, 
" sheep-trotters," hop-bines, are used for manure. Digging the 
land is done with the spud peculiar to Kent, before Christmas 
if possible ; before the trees are pruned, that the bloom, which 
* " Farming of Kent." Buckland, ' Journal ' R. A. S. E., vol. vi. p. 279, 1845. 
