AGRICULTURE and a ram from Romney Marsh and set himself to establish a new type. ' Kent ' sheep, as they were then called in the London market, had already acquired a great reputation for early maturity and a propensity to fatten, as well as for the superiority of their wool, which in good flocks averaged between five and six pounds per fleece. Sheep bred and fed on the inland farms differed somewhat from the typical Romney Marsh sheep, being more compact in frame and shorter in wool. By judicious selection and crossing of the two varieties they have become more or less merged in the one type possessing the best points of each of its con- stituents. Perhaps the best evidence of the suitability of this breed for all parts of the county is the fact that it literally ' holds the field ' without a rival, for it is estimated that it comprises from 80 to 90 per cent, of the sheep in the county. The Romney Marsh is a hornless, white- faced breed, with a wide head, level between the ears. In a typical specimen the poll is well covered with wool and free from dark hair ; the nose is coal-black. The fleece is of even texture and of a good decided staple from the foretop to the end of the tail. An average flock will give from six to seven pounds of wool per fleece, but marshland sheep, especially rams, will frequently clip much greater weights. It is customary to shear the lambs at about three months old and their fleeces give about a pound and a quarter of wool. Rams of this breed are in good demand for South America, and a few are sent to New Zealand. There is a ' Romney Marsh ' flock-book, and some of the flocks registered in it have, it is claimed, been kept pure-bred for upwards of a century. Hops. — From the time that the hop-plant was introduced into England, Kent has been the principal centre of its cultivation. In 1906 out of a total of 46,722 acres Kent contained 29,296 acres, or about two-thirds. In 1878, when the hop acreage of the country reached its highest point (nearly 72,000 acres), there were 46,600 acres in Kent alone. The fluctuations in acreage during the past forty years are shown in the following statement, which gives the average area for successive five-year periods, with the average rate of produce per acre so far as the figures are available : — Acres. Cwt. per acre. 1867-71 38,923 1872-76 41,286 1877-81 44>o87 1882-86 43,319 1887-^1 3S.9S3 • • • 6-9 1892-96 34>S44 ... 9-0 1897-1901 31.469 ... 96 1902-06 29,875 ... 90 It must be remembered that at the time when higher prices ruled a great deal of quite unsuitable land was planted not only in Kent but in other parts of the country and the fore- going figures should perhaps be interpreted as indicating, not so much the decadence of hop- culture, as its restriction to those localities where the conditions of soil and climate are specially adapted to it. There are about four hundred parishes in Kent, and the number in which hops are grown has dwindled from 313 to 232 during the last twenty years. Even now a good deal of land that is devoted to hops should be grubbed up, but the speculative instinct makes the farmer who has a few acres cling to them and devote to their cultivation an amount of time and capital that would probably be better expended upon some less hazardous branch of farming. Upon the reduced area under cultivation the produce per acre has been greatly increased both by the planting of new and more prolific varieties and by the widespread substitution of permanent arrangements of posts with attachments of wire and string for the older system of temporary poles. During the early part of last century the average crop was about 6 cwt. per acre, and it may be said that the whole system of intensive cultivation has grown up during the last generation. At the present time, on the best lands, hops are without doubt the most highly-farmed and skilfully-managed crop in the world. The ordinary processes of cultivation require a large outlay, and in seasons when the plants are peculiarly subject to insect or fungoid attacks much additional expense is incurred by the grower through the neces- sity of spraying if the crop is to be saved from destruction. New hops are usually planted in October or November, old orchard or pasture land being well adapted for the purpose ; the plants are placed in rows six feet apart each way ; this gives about 1,200 plants to the acre. Sometimes a crop, such as mangolds, is grown between the rows for the first year. Between November and March hop land is dug with the Kent ' spud,' an instrument with three tines which broaden out to a flat edge. The cost of digging an I 465 59
