261 On the Agricultural Geology of the Weald. 
furze bushes and broom. Roads tlaere are none, only a few 
tracks, and it is altogether a most desolate-looking place. Those 
who have to cross the shingle usually put on a pair of ' baxters,' 
or small flat pieces of wood with a leathern loop for the foot. 
They are used with a peculiar sliding gait, and make the 
walking much more easy." * 
Pevensey Level much resembles Romney Marsh, save in 
extent. It, too, is pasture land ; lying low, and protected by a 
broad spread of shingle, which stretches along the coast from 
Eastbourne eastwards. 
Hops. 
In this essay the author has avoided questions touching upon 
agriculture proper, but a few words upon a crop which pre- 
eminently distinguishes the area under review may not be out of 
place. 
There are four districts within the Weald in which hops are 
more largely grown than elsewhere. The smallest in extent is 
that around Farnham. They are grown chiefly upon the marly 
and soft siliceous soils of the Upper Greensand,t but also occa- 
sionally upon the neighbouring Gault, either when bare or 
overspread with gravel. The hops from this district always 
command a high price. Some of the lands now growing 
this plant have been hop-gardens for a very long time ; the 
"Heart Gardens" at Farnham "have been in continuous 
cultivation ever since the first introduction of hops into England, 
or, at any rate, for fully 300 years." % 
The next district in quality of produce, and surpassing the 
former in extent, is that of the Medway valley, on the ragstone 
soil ; of which sufficient has been said in describing the Lower 
Greensand area. The hop-gardens, however, extend along the 
face of the escarpment, east and west, flourishing extremely well 
on the outcrop of the Atherfield Clay, and the debris of the 
ragstone hill. The Maidstone district thus joins on to that 
of Hadlow and Tunbridge. 
* Drew, Mem. Gaol. Survey, Sheet 4, p. 18. This memoir contains a minute 
account of the formation and present character of Komney Marsh. 
t Writing of the Upper Greensand of Oxfordshire, Mr. C. S. Uead says: " The 
extraordinary luxuriance of the wild hop seems to indicate that it is the natural 
soil of that plant, and peculiarly adapted for its growth " (" Farming of Oxford- 
shire," 'Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society,' vol. xv., p. 195.) It is strange 
tliat hops are not more cultivated on the outcropping of the Upper Greensand 
north of London. There were only 9 acres grown in Oxfordshire iu 1866, 2 
acres in 1867 and 1868, and none in 1869. 
' + See article, "Hop" (by Mr. T. M. Paine), in Morton's 'Cyclopaedia of 
A riculture.' 
