412 Market-Garden Soils and Crops 



of maps will reveal a great difference in the effect produced by the two 

 methods of constructiou. 



The details of the method used by the writer were as follows : The 

 acreage -of each crop on every soil formation was measured up. The 

 acreage, choosing some suitable unit, was then dotted on the areas of 

 a soil formation, which carried that crop. The 6 inch Ordnance Survey 

 maps, which show the fields, were used in obtaining crop statistics. 

 The crops on each field were measured up and the total acreage of 

 each crop was worked out for each soil formation on which it was 

 found to be growing on every sheet of the 6 inch map. The figures 

 were then plotted separately for each 6 inch sheet on an outhue map 

 of the soil formations reduced to a one inch scale, and it was then 

 found that certain soil formations were markedly associated with some 

 particular crop. 



The construction of these maps has involved a tremendous amount 

 of labour, for the acreage of every crop on an area of nearly 100 square 

 miles had to be estimated and then tabulated under the various soil 

 formations with which they were associated. When it is borne in mind 

 that the market-gardener grows a variety of crops on a small acreage of 

 ground, the labour involved in making crop returns and calculating 

 acreages will easily be seen to be no small one. Reproductions of the 

 crop maps which show the distribution of twenty-one crops over the 

 various soil formations are shown iu the Appendix. An inspection of 

 these maps at once reveals soils which farmers have found by experience 

 to be well suited to the growth of various market-garden crops. 



In the following short summary of the relationships brought out 

 by these maps between crop and soil it is proposed only to indicate 

 those which are most striking. The presence of smaller quantities of 

 a crop on any formation will not be mentioned, as these have already 

 been dealt with in a general way when describing the soil formations. 

 The following are the most striking relationships: 



Map 9. White turnips associated with brown and dark greensand 

 formations. 



Map 10. Early potatoes associated with brown and dark greensand 

 and valley gravel soil formations. 



Map 11. Carrots associated with dark and brown greensand soils, 

 and the new dark gravel soil formation. The brown greensand grows 

 more late carrots than early ones. 



Map 12. Onions; new dark gravel soil formation, wash on Oxford 

 clay, wash on boulder clay, and glacial soil formations. 



