242 THE LIBRARY TABLE. 



specially suitable for grass, and as once (when wheat was dear) having been 

 valuable for growing wheat, clover and beans. Mr. McConnell, however, thus 

 gives his own experience of it : — 



" The greater part of the author's farm is situated on this clay, so that he 

 has learned from sorrowful experience what the nature of the soil is. Tiptree 

 Hall — farmed by the late Mr. Mechi — is also on this soil and is now a fruit 

 farm." 



We are also informed that "the general contour of the land is alow 

 uneven, gentle undulating surface, the highest land not much over 400 ft over 

 sea level, though some few hills in Essex reach 600 ft.'' 



The present writer has never been able, aided by the new ordnance maps, 

 to detect any hills in Essex having a height of 500 ft. The highest ground 

 appears to De on the Chalk of the north-west corner 



Of the Lower Bagshot sands and gravels we learn that, though sometimes 

 loo sandy or gravelly for fertility, yet while they have not the " body " of the 

 London Clay, they are more easily and satisfactorily worked. They cover but 

 a small area in Essex compared with the London Clay, on which they lie as 

 isolated patches at Brentwood, Rayleigh, Laindon Hills and elsewhere. 



The Pliocene "Crag" of Eastern Essex is still more insignificant as a 

 maker of soil. It is the highest bed shown on a non-drift map except the 

 alluvium of the river marshes. 



By far the most important of the drift beds is the Chalky Boulder Clay, 

 which probably occupies at least as much of the surface of Essex as all the 

 other beds combiued, and a still larger proportion of that of Suffolk. Mr. 

 McConnell states that it covers about 3,000 square miles in the Eastern 

 Counties. He has about 50 acres of it on his own farm, capping the 

 undulations of the London Clay, and finds that " it is the only arable land he 

 has that is fit for cultivation, the rest being London Clay." The Chalky- 

 Boulder Clay appears to make good wheat land. He adds that " in the 

 course of ages a large part of the lime has been dissolved out of the surface 

 layer." This point makes the detection of Boulder Clay so doubtful when 

 only shallow sections are exposed. But it is satisfactory to learn that " there is 

 still sufficient left to supply the soil for plant needs ; while the existence of 

 marl pits shows that much of this marly clay was dug and spread on the 

 surface in the olden times ; in fact, if the subsoil is dug into almost anywhere, 

 beds and streaks of bluish-white marl are found in abundance." 



It is interesting to learn that the sand and gravel of the Glacial Period, 

 which underlies the Chalky Boulder Clay, has generally a large admixture of 

 earthy matter in it, and forms a good loamy soil which compares favourably 

 with that of either the London Clay or the Boulder Clay, both in the 

 neighbourhood of Ongar and that of Chelmsford. 



On the other hand, the patches of gravel coloured red on the drift maps, 

 which appear at High Beach, Laindon Hill, Rayleigh, and elsewhere in 

 southern Essex, and are considered to be of pre-Glacial age, are barren 

 gravels, " given over to gravel-pits and the growth of birch or copsewood.'' 

 Similarly barren are the Post-Glacial gravel patches, coloured orange. 



As regards old river deposits, our author speaks highly of the loam or 

 brickearth in the neighbourhood of Southend and Rochford. 



