432 REPORT ON THE RECLAMATION OF WASTE LAND. 



The subsoil is generally a friable sandy stratified clay, altering 

 in density from being easily workable with the tramp spade to 

 being almost impervious to the pick. The percentage of sand 

 in the clay is always large, but varies in different localities. 

 There is not a vestige of clay in the county sufficiently plastic 

 to make bricks or pipe tiles, which have all to be imported. The 

 subsoil clay varies in depth from less than a foot to over six feet, 

 and rests either on boulder clay or pavement rock. The colour 

 of the clay shades from light brown to yellow and dark red, and 

 as a general rule the darker the better. The richest descrip- 

 tion of red clay is seen in the county at Kilminster and Acker- 

 gill, in the parish of Wick, the property of Sir George Dunbar, 

 Bart. 



The same nature of soil and subsoil prevails over Orkney, but 

 there the subsoil clay is richer and the land better quality on an 

 average. The finest specimens of rich red subsoil clay are seen 

 in the island of South Eonaldshay, partly the property of the 

 Earl of Zetland and of Mr Heddle of Melsetter ; in Stronsay, on 

 the property of George Traill, Esq., M.P., and others ; and in 

 Sanday, on the farm of Stove, the property of David Balfour, Esq. 

 The extraordinary fertility of a large proportion of the Orkney 

 land cannot be surpassed, and with a seaboard equal in extent to 

 the east coast of Scotland, affording an unlimited supply of shell 

 sand and seaweed, Orkney is capable of being made one of the 

 most productive districts of the kingdom. 



There is often an iron-pan below the mould in the upper 

 stratum of the subsoil. Where iron prevails, the deposit from 

 the water is very injurious to drainage, by filling up the openings 

 and bursting the drains. In this case the drains should be sunk 

 as deep as possible ; leaders with large openings put into every 

 hollow, and the regular gradients of incline in the bottoms of 

 parallel and leading drains strictly adhered to. Of course, this is 

 applicable to all drainage. The water often springs from fissures 

 in the rock, and is tapped between the subsoil and boulder clay. 

 The drainage cannot be executed perfectly at any fixed depth ; 

 but all drains ought to be 3 feet 3 inches deep, except where 

 rock intervenes, and there cut clown as near that depth as possible. 



The principal desiderata in reclamation of waste ground in 

 this county are thorough drainage ; trench ploughing, with three 

 or four horses to mix a portion of the subsoil with the vegetable 

 mould above it ; subsoil ploughing, to break the pan, allow the 

 water to sink, &c. ; and lastly, a top-dressing with calcareous 

 matter, either in the form of lime, marl, or shell sand. 



The statement of the subject in two divisions, one of 82 acres 

 and the other of 43 acres, is adopted, because the reclamation was 

 executed at two different periods under different contracts, the 

 accounts being kept separate, and because the 82 acres portion 



