Farming of Kent. 
265 
soils ; but lime is rarely used. Artificial manures are not much 
known. Guano and bone-dust, however, are highly approved, 
particularly for turnips. 
Many farmers use their own property ; others have short leases 
with liberal covenants, but the majority who occupy under large 
holders are tenants-at-will. Rents from 30s. to 40s. ; parochial 
rates, about 5s. ; tithes, Us. on arable and 3s. Q)d. on pasture per 
acre. Day labourers, 12s. a week. Threshers earn from 13s. to 
15s. a week. Cottages are tolerably comfortable, with small 
gardens, generally at rents at about bl. per annum. 
There is some excellent arable land lying between the Medway 
and the Thames, and a considerable extent of pasture and marsh, 
including the hundred of Hoo and the Isle of Grain. The subsoil 
is various, in some places a light gravel, in others a good brick 
earth or stiff clay. Much of this district requires draining, an 
operation that well repays the cost wherever it has been done with 
judgment. Drains are usually made from 2 to 2J feet deep, filled 
with shells, stones, or tiles, at a cost of Is. to Is. 3rf. a rod. The 
most connnon rotation of cropping is the six-field shift : — 1. Tur- 
nips, manured with dung and folded ; 2. Barley, beans, or peas ; 
3. Wheat ; 4. Clover; 5. Wheat; 6. Oats. Averages: — wheat, 
beans, and peas, 3^ to 4 qrs. ; barley, 6 qrs. ; oats, about 7 qrs. 
per acre. Leases of seven to twenty-one years prevail. Rents, 
about 30s.; tithes, 10s. to 12s. arable, pasture 4s.; rates, 3s. 
per acre. Wages, 15s. a week. Cottage rents, with small gar- 
dens, from 41. to 6/. a year. 
A belt of country, about 4 or 5 miles wide, between Gravesend 
and Dartford, consisting of a light, fertile soil, is in a high state of 
cultivation, producing large quantities of cinquefoil, early peas, 
turnips, &c., for the London market. During the "podding 
season " numbers of women and children are employed from Lon- 
don, Deptford, and other populous towns. 
On the top of the chalk range the soil is generally poor and 
stiff, and in places literally covered with flints and stones. As 
localities the parts about Cudham, Kingsdown, Stanstead, and 
Wrotham may be instanced ; although different modifications of 
the same soil occur more or less throughout the higher portions 
of the chalk formation. It is a soil most difficult and expensive 
to manage, sometimes requiring six or eight horses to plough it, 
and in dry summers its cultivation is almost impracticable. 
Where this land has been drained, and the hedges kept low, the 
crops are not only more certain but of much larger amount and 
come earlier to maturity. The largest flints are taken off for the 
repair of the roads, but it is considered injurious to remove the 
smaller ones, since in dry weather they retain a large quantity of 
moisture to nourish the growing crop. The rotation on the poor 
