A HISTORY OF KENT is grown, chiefly in the parishes of Hoo, Cliffe and High Halstow, and in the last-named there is a small area of hops. During the summer a large number of sheep — some 30,000 — are kept in the district. Many are sent away for the winter as they cannot be folded on the heavy land. They return about the middle of April. The average size of the farms is about the same as in Sheppey, and the depreciation in the value of land has been almost as great as in that island, rents being stated to have fallen from iz per acre to £, per acre between 1889 and 1899. Since that date there has probably been little change. RoMNEY Marsh. — This interesting tract of country lies in the south-eastern corner of the county, adjoining the eastern end of the Weald. It comprises a total area of about 47,000 acres, the greater part of which has been recovered from the sea within historic times. On the south a process of natural accretion is continually going on, the gain at the extreme point being about seven feet of land every year On the east side the Marsh is protected from
- he sea by the Dymchurch wall, a structure dating back to Roman, or possibly pre-Roman times.
Almost as ancient is the Rhee wall running from Appledore to Romney. The area between these two walls was the first to be reclaimed and was in occupation at the time of the Romans, while the land to the south-west of the Rhee wall was inclosed at various periods up to the seventeenth century. Dugdale in his History of Embanking and Draining (1662) refers to the Marsh as a large and fertile tract of 24,000 acres more anciently secured from the inunda- tions of the ocean than any other part of the realm. Of the total surface some 36,000 acres, or about three-fourths, are cultivated, but only 7,000 acres of this are under the plough. The arable land is rich alluvial clay with an admixture of dry peat in places. The principal crops grown are wheat, oats and beans, the yield both of grain and straw being heavy ; roots, clover and potatoes are also cultivated to a considerable extent, but scarcely any barley is grown. A few acres of hops are still to be seen in the neigh- bourhood of Ivychurch. The remaining 29,000 acres consist of grass-land or marsh-pastures. These are of exceed- ing richness, and the number of sheep that they are capable of carrying will be a cause of aston- ishment to the observant visitor. In the summer-time there are from 135,000 to 140,000 sheep and lambs in the Marsh, and this is undoubtedly fewer than was the case thirty years ago. Many of the pastures are let along with the hill farms of Kent and Sussex ; a good one will carry six sheep to the acre from April to October and three for the remainder of the year in addition to a few bullocks. Some will fatten out as many as ten sheep per acre during the summer. In the winter time the number of sheep is of course much smaller, as owing to the exposed character of the Marsh young sheep cannot be wintered in it, but are removed inland. They are sent away about October, some as far as Hertford and Essex, and do not return until the following April, graziers who have no upland ground paying 5/. to 6s. per score per week for their keep during the winter. When Boys wrote his report, a century ago, the charge was 2s. to 2J. 6d. per score. The sheep were returned on April 5, and, the writer states, in a bad winter frequently went home nearly starved. At the time of the Crimean war the high price of corn led to some of the grass land being broken up, but the experiment proved a costly one, for subsequent experience showed the difficulty of relaying the land to grass — indeed the opinion is prevalent that it cannot be satisfactorily done. The majority of the holdings are less than 50 acres in extent and the average size is about 80 acres of cultivated land. Twenty or thirty years ago rents ranged from £2 to £f, per acre, or even more for choice pieces of land, figures considerably higher than when Buckland wrote, in 1845. Since those times of prosperity it is considered that the pasture has fallen 50 per cent, and the arable land 75 per cent, in value. Most of the Marsh is drained, although the greater part is from six to twelve feet below the level of the sea. The expense of maintaining the sea-defences is met by a ' wall-scot ' charged upon the various owners whose lands are liable to inundation ; this with the drainage- scot amounts to 5^. to los. per acre annually according to the outlay involved. A branch of the South-Eastern Railway traverses the Marsh from Appledore to New Romney and Dungeness. It may be appropriate in this place to mention the famous breed of Romney Marsh sheep, which is peculiar to Kent and takes its name from the district whence it was originally derived. The improvements which have led up to its present state of excellence commenced rather over a century ago when a yeoman farmer named Richard Goord selected nine ewes 46+
