2 Agriculture oj Shropshire. 



sound blue or grey stone, valuable as road metal, and when 

 mouldered into soil makes very useful tillage land. We find 

 in these rocks an abundance of fossils, especially corals and 

 crinoidea. 



The Ludlow formation is about 2000 feet in thickness, and is 

 composed of the Lower Ludlow rocks, the Aymestry limestone, 

 and Upper Ludlow rocks. The Lower Ludlow rocks consist of 

 a. succession of shales similar in colour to the VVenlock shales. 

 These shales are called mudstones in Shropshire. The Aymestry 

 limestones are hard and of the usual grey or blue colour. The 

 Upper Ludlow rocks are chiefly sandstone rocks, with lime and 

 clay occasionally appearing amongst them. The soils upon the 

 Ludlow formation ai'e exceedingly variable. Clays naturally of 

 a retentive character are often laid dry by the peculiar fractures 

 of the rock beneath producing a good natural drainage. Where 

 these soils have not Ijeen intermixed with other soils by washing, 

 they are not of high character as arable land. 



The Devonian system is exceedingly intermixed in this district ; 

 the general order of succession for these rocks is as follows : — 

 Red conglomerates with interlying beds of sandstone, varying in 

 colour from red to green, and in character from sandstones to 

 marls. The soils formed from the decay of these rocks are 

 generally poor hungry sands ; but when they get natural supplies 

 of lime and clay they become valuable. After these beds we 

 come upon the cornstones and marls of this system. These are 

 concrete masses of limestones, and with them we have the varie- 

 gated marls which are of red and jjreen colours. These yield 

 strong but rich and valuable soils. The lowest beds are the tile- 

 stones, which, as their name describes, are thin laminated masses, 

 splitting readily into thin flags, and varying in colour from reddish- 

 green to green. 



The coal measures of Shropshire are most extensive in the 

 Coalbrook-dale district ; we also find them in the plain of 

 Shrewsbury, and in the south-east of the county. Valuable as 

 these beds are in other branches of commercial industry, they 

 generally bear an opposite relation to the agriculturist, as the 

 soils formed upon them are generally poor, heavy, and cold ; but 

 we shall have further opportunity of noticing the soils of the 

 county more in detail. 



The Climate of a district exerts a powerful influence upon the 

 management of land, the crops giown, and the seasons for sowing, 

 as well as the produce ; and in order that a person may judge of 

 the suitability of any particular practice to another district, he has 

 not only to know the geological formation and the soil, but also the 

 climate. I am fortunate in being able to lay before the reader the 

 following observations upon the weather, which have been taken 



with 



