THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



369 



THE WANDLE VALLEY. 



BY CUTHBEET AV. JOIINSONj ESQ., F.E.S. 



The farming of the valley of the Wandle river 

 partakes rather too much of the character of the 

 other suburban districts. The high prices paid in 

 the metropolis for certain roots and household 

 vegetables, and the ready access to almost inexhaus- 

 tible supplies of organic manure, enable most of 

 the holders of the land near London to cultivate 

 their ground in defiance of all rotations, regardless 

 of almost any other object than that of the highest- 

 priced produce. The farming of the Wandle 

 valley is not an exception to this rule. From its 

 commencement at Croydon till it terminates at 

 Wandsworth, the banks of this bright chalk 

 stream are hardly ever more than ten miles from 

 Westminster Bridge; the influence of London 

 upon the lands around it is therefore evident at 

 every footstep we advance along all the rich vale 

 through which it flows towards the Thames. 



Still there are some things to be noted even here, 

 worthy of the attention of the farmers of other dis- 

 tricts of our island. The very geological situation 

 of the valley is worthy of notice. The Wandle, in 

 fact, traverses pretty closely, for a considerable por- 

 tion of its course, the line which marks the division 

 of the London and the jilastic clays, from the great 

 southern chalk formation. As the traveller de- 

 scends the valley from Croydon, he will find the 

 clay hills of the London basin sloping down to 

 th.e northern bank of the river, and the chalk hills 

 bounding his view, and forming the soils of the 

 soiith side of the stream. From the base of these 

 considerable chalk hills issue forth the copious 

 bright springs which form the Wandle river ; and 

 on their northern slopes rest the calcareous loam 

 soils, known in Surrey as " the marme lands" — 

 soils long since correctly described by Stevenson 

 as deep hazel loams resting on the chalk, and 

 varying in depth with the elevation : very deep at 

 the base of the hills, and thinning off to three or 

 four inches in ascending to the Downs. When 

 deep, there is no drawback to their fertility. When 

 shallow, pale, and inclining to clay they are consi- 

 dered to form backward soils in the spring. They 

 are described by Mr. Trimmer as forming a narrow 

 band extending on the north-side of the chalk hills 

 from Croydon to Guildford {Jour. Roy. Ag. Soc, 

 vol. xii., p. 488). 



If the farmer, in his way, during the month of 

 May, from London to "The Derby," alights for an 

 hour or two at the Carshalton station, he will find 



himself on this marme soil. He will first see 

 around him extensive fields of lavender and other 

 scented oil-producing plants ; and leaving them, he 

 will enter upon the marme farms, held by consi- 

 derable and enterprising holders. He will find 

 here the ordinary powerful Kentish turnwrest 

 plough chiefly employed ; and if he has not been 

 used to see it in operation, he will hardly fail to 

 note how much better it does its work than its first 

 appearance would lead the stranger to anticipate. 



It was on these lands that, in the past month 

 of April, I found the powerful steam-ploughs of 

 Mr. Fowler. They were at work on a sainfoin 

 field of the hazel loam to which I have before al- 

 luded. Around these were assembled a group of 

 intelhgent farmers, with Garrett of Leiston, and 

 other zealous and scientific implement makers. 

 Here I had the pleasure of again noting the ex- 

 cellent work which these steam- ploughs accom- 

 plished, the evenness and depth of the furrows, 

 and the uninterrupted steadiness with which the 

 machinery accomplished its allotted task. 



Few spots could have been better chosen for such 

 trials than this field at Woodcote ; the soil being 

 of an even texture ; the field level and extensive, 

 and not altogether devoid of historical recollections, 

 which might serve to cheer on the skilful modern 

 implement maker in his difficult task; since, only a 

 few fields off", in the same hamlet of Woodcote, is 

 found the site of the old British, and afterwards 

 Roman Noviomagus, where it is pretty certain rude 

 old British, and Roman ploughs once merely 

 roughly- stirred the surface of the ill-cultivated land, 

 and where the ploughman could not venture forth 

 to his miserably-executed task without an armed 

 attendant to protect him and his team from the 

 robber. Strange advances these, from the old 

 wooden plough then employed, made by the 

 ploughman's own hands, and dragged slowly 

 through the soil by half-a-dozen ill-fed horses or 

 oxen, to the ploughs of the turnwrest, and of Ran- 

 some, and Howard, and Fowler ! 



Of the steam plough, I am well-disposed to 

 speak hopefully. Much has already been done 

 with it : practice and experience will in time as- 

 suredly do far more to render it practically avail- 

 able; and this remark may apply not only to the 

 plough dragged through the soil by portable 

 engines, but to the too-much-neglected digging 

 machines, which have been hitherto only partially 



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