20G 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



mortar, and exhibits tlie iron sandstone imbedded 

 among tlie quartzy white sand, as a most distinct accom- 

 paniment. Black irony bands encircle the blocks, which 

 are blackish in colour, and not large in size. The 

 southern top of the plateau of the rocky range of sand- 

 stone affords a lead-coloured clay for bricks, and the 

 cut of (he descending roadatPain's-hill into the Wealden 

 level exhibits the sandstone as a very cleanly stratified 

 rock, with short beds and not extensive laminse. The 

 stone is quartzy whitish in colour, and short in the 

 breakage — the last character attaches to every rock of 

 this formation, in sand, limestone, and argillaceous 

 schist. This rocky southern escarpment continues, 

 with flattened interruptions, by Reigate and Maidstone. 

 At the door of the inn in the village of Limpsfield 

 there is placed a stone as a stepping height into horse- 

 back for the loiterers on market-days, which exhibits 

 the encircling band of irony concretions, being a block 

 of the iron sandstone of the locality. The northern 

 slope of the sandstone dips beneath the London clay, 

 the rocks jutting out in various places in flattish 

 deposits, and with a crumbling frontage, resembling 

 a clayey schist, as is seen on the road in the village of 

 Limpsfield. 



The chalk and the underlying sandstone having been 

 removed by denudation, the oolite is found to be covered 

 by the Wealden clay, and this last deposit is placed by 

 geology as part of the oolitic system of deposits, and 

 consequently should underlie the sandstone rock now 

 being described. But below Pain's-hill, on the southern 

 slope of the rock above mentioned, the tail of the sand- 

 stone is most evidently overlapped by the Wealden clay, 

 forming above it a dry friable ground, much infested 

 with ant hills, and weak in cultivation. That geology 

 may be the most correct which reckons the Wealden 

 clay to be a formation posterior to the denudations, and 

 to have been deposited by an estuary reflux, the mixed 

 agency of fresh and sea water being evident from the 

 exuvial remains of sea and land that are found in the 

 clay. East and west of Pain's-hill, the rock presents a 

 rugged escarpment, partially covered with brushwood, 

 the tail of the sandstone being constantly overlapped by 

 the Wealden clay, which extends southwards to the sea 

 with inflected interruptions. 



All the sands of the southern counties are derived 

 from this sandstone rock, or the green sand of English 

 geology. The upper bed, or the green sand, is modified 

 into the arenaceous beds of Cambridgeshire, Bedford- 

 shire, and Wiltshire. The Shanklin sands of Sussex, 

 the sands Burreldown in Hampshire, and in other 

 places, show a descent from the parent type ; while the 

 Bagshot sands, and those of Hampslead, Highgate, and 

 Hornsey, though they must be referred to a much 

 later geological era, are clearly of the same origin, 

 marine in nature, quartzy, and barren. 



The chalk marl forms good lands at the base of the 

 North Down range, of which a good specimen may be 

 seeninTitsey Park, near Limpsfield. It lies in a re- 

 caltrant angle of the Batley chalk hill, between an east- 

 ward covering of the very viscous plastic clay and a 

 •westward salient angle of the lowest hard chalk. The 

 permanent grassy produce is prime in quality, being 

 composed of the true grasses, or the very best gramineous 

 plants, being produced by a very careful manuring of 

 the surface in regular divisions and slated intervals, 

 which never fails in banishing weeds and in substituting 

 the best grasses. Few situations exhibit an equal 

 quality and management of a park for the convenience 

 of hay and animal pasturage. The buildings for horses 

 and cows have much merit. 



The green-sand lands of Farnham are well-known in 

 the quality for hops, being mixtures of sand and chalky 



alluvium ; the yellow sands of Reigate are not worth 

 any consideration ; a somewhat better quality reaches to 

 Godstone, which shows the gault clay ; thence by Oxted, 

 Limpsfield, and Westerham, the iron sands appear in the 

 true quality, and chiefly around Limpsfield on the 

 Titsey estate. The best lands on this deposit of sand- 

 stone scarcely reach a medium quality, yielding in some 

 few places fair crops of wheat and roots. A very hurt- 

 ful ferruginous quality attaches to all the soils from this 

 formation ; a battered hardness succeeds every fall of 

 rain, which in southern climes, being of a planetary 

 nature, a condition is produced in the land that proves 

 very adverse to vegetable life. The absence of exuvial 

 remains and the siliceous base, create a barrenness of 

 soil that would not be expected under the benign climate 

 of South Britain. Chemistry has boasted of having 

 found phosphoric acid in the green sand, and that cul- 

 tivation might be thereby induced. But that discovery 

 will hardly persuside to cultivate at Reigate or Bletch- 

 ingly, or the green or iron sands in the true appearance. 



The best sandy lands are cropped, under the most 

 approved rotations, with roots, grains, and clovers. The 

 burning, scorching, or iron sands arc not capable of 

 maturing grain crops except in the best modifications of 

 the ground. The hot suns of spring or the early sum- 

 mer, as in May, exert a scorching eff"ect on the iron 

 constitution of the land, which completely checks or 

 kills vegetation, and the barleys sown on turnip grounds 

 often do not rise beyond the sheath of the blade, and in 

 one to two feet high, are ripened by whitening, and are 

 not worth being thrashed. The evil arises from exposing 

 the soil to the scorching heats by spring operations, and 

 the chief object must be to screen the land from ex- 

 posure by the autumn-sown crops of rye and winter 

 vetches, which cover the ground with foliage, and ex- 

 cludes the heats of the spring and early summer. Rye 

 forms the only seed crop ; the quantity of straw is large, 

 and produces manure for the clay grounds that prevail 

 in the locality, and the grain equals barley in price, and 

 far exceeds it in quantity. But on these very weak 

 soils four green crops will be required to yield one seed 

 crop, and consumed on the ground by sheep, which 

 animals are most excellent farmers, and must be largely 

 employed on all dry lands under benign climates. These 

 sands are most peculiarly suited for bone manure, as are 

 the granitic soils of Scotland, and all lands that are very 

 nearly related to the parent rock. The siliceous grit is 

 most pleasing to the bones as a manure. The crops 

 may be — 1 , turnips, with artificial manures, and consumed 

 on the ground by sheep that are folded regularly on the 

 bared ground ; 2, Spring vetches, also consumed on the 

 ground ; 3, Autumn rye, consumed on the land ; 4, 

 turnips consumed on the land; 5, rye, for a seed crop. 

 Or — 1, spring vetches fed ; 2, rye fed ; 3, turnip or rape 

 fed; 4, winter vetches fed; 5, rape fed; 6, rye seed 

 crop. A crop of barley and of clovers may be intro- 

 duced occasionally, but turnips must be the clearing 

 crop, vetches the cooling and smothering crop, and 

 rye the seed crop, as it is sown in autumn and gets the 

 benefit of the winteris moisture. Perennial grasses are 

 not adapted for these soils, which never can be formed 

 into pasture ; constant sheep farming, as now described, 

 is the only mode of use, and varies well with the soils of 

 plastic and London clays that are joined in farms. 

 These latter soils being very viscous and intractable are 

 best used in grass, as are all lands that require 

 more power in the cultivation than the strength of two 

 horses. If the herbage be deficient, the land must be 

 relaid with grasses, after thorough draining, fallowing 

 with dung and lime. The subsequent pasturage must 

 be upheld with ample top-dressings that are frequently 

 repeated. J. D. 



