Farming of Kent. 
291 
every felling of ten years' growth from 40/. to 45/. per acre ! 
Much migb.t be said on this important svibject ; but I shall in- 
troduce some valuable remaiks and calculations with which I 
have been favoured by a gentleman of long and extensive expe- 
rience in the management of estates in this county, and who was 
among the first to form larch plantations on exhausted arable 
land in this district, for the double purpose of growing hop-poles 
and renovating the soil :* — 
" The woodlands in this county have, generally speaking, been very 
much improved within the last 30 years by draining and planting, 
particularly in and near the hop-growing districts. The system pur- 
sued on some estates, after sufficiently draining the surface by open 
ditches, is to fill up all vacancies in old wood-lands with chesuut or ash 
plants, according to the nature of the soil, at distances of not less than 
6 feet from each other, but at considerably less than that from old and 
inferior stubs or stools. This planting is done in the course of the 
autumn or whiter next succeeding the season of felling. At the follow- 
ing felling of the wood, say in 10 years, the young plants are cut otf at 
least 6 inches from the surface of the ground ; some of the most 
inferior and least productive of the old stubs of beech, birch, &c., are 
then grubbed up to give room for tlie young plants, and the vacancies 
occasioned thereby are filled up as before. At the next felling of the 
underwood, at the end of 8 or 9 years, the remainder of the old stubs 
are grubbed, and the ground filled up with plants as before, taking care 
to have all the plants at least 6 feet apart. I know of wood-land 
treated in this way that has improved in value from six to tenfold 
within 25 years. 
" It is a great and fatal mistake which almost all young and inex- 
perienced planters make, to plant too thickly, and not unfrequently to 
put in ash or willow on a soil suitable only for cbesnut. Willow, if 
planted at all, should only be put in very sparingly, ash being so much 
more durable and valuable. 
" The advantage of this method of gradually improving wood-land is, 
the expense is not very serious, and the produce is not at any one time 
diminished, as of course it would be if all the old stubs were eradicated 
at once and the ground entirely replanted. The value of the stubs pavs 
the expense of grubbing. 
" New plantations to some considerable extent have during the last 
20 years been made of chesnul at 6 feet distance, with larch in the 
intervals at 2 feet distant each way. Some of the larch are large 
enough for hop-poles in 9 or 10 years from the time of planting, and 
should then be taken up to make room for the smaller plants. The 
whole of the larch cannot be taken down with advantage till the 7 or 8 
succeeding years, when the chesnut are left as a permanent plantation. 
" The following is an estimate of the cost per acre of making a 
plantation of chesnut and larch, viz.: — 
* I\Ir. Thomas Neve, Piillington, Benenden, whose larch plantations 
are in a flourishing condition, having supplied the neighbourhood with 
many thousand hop-poles annually for a considerable period. 
