158 Bit/top's Cannings. 



determined. Some shells, particularly some of the Pectens, are 

 converted into silex, and in these instances they retain the original 

 form with much minuteness and beauty. There are few localities 

 in which so great a variety of fossils may be found as in this, and 

 the researches of the geologist will be amply repaid by the abund- 

 ance which even a few years will supply to his cabinets. 



Mr. Cunnington's collection contains upwards of 200 species 

 from this immediate neighbourhood. Several kinds of Ammonites 

 are found, some of them appear to be peculiar to this locality. 

 Sponges which are so fine in the Green Sand of Warminster, and 

 the Vale of Pewsey, are rare in the Sand of Bishop's Cannings, 

 there are two or three species only, and these not common. 



The soil of the Upper Green Sand is variable; where it is cov- 

 ered by the mixed detritus from the chalk and other beds it is very 

 fertile; but in these spots where the sand itself comes to the surface 

 it is very light, and is what is usually called a "hungry soil," that 

 is, it requires large quantities of manure. Not only does the light- 

 ness and looseness of the sand allow the free passage of the rain 

 water, and thus the soluble constituents are easily washed away, 

 but the organic manures are so much exposed in these porous soils 

 to the oxygen of the atmosphere, that they are rapidly decomposed. 

 Where practicable, the best remedy for soils of this kind is, probably, 

 the application of considerable quantities of chalk or heavy loam. 



Produce, &c. 



From the foregoing account of the qualities of the soil, it is clear 

 that any sort of cereal crop is grown with advantage ; whilst the 

 meadows yield pasture for the milk cows, and the Downs afford a 

 range for the Southdown sheep, which are here bred in great num- 

 bers. At the time in which I write, the quantity of live stock is 

 as follows, Sheep, 11,310; Horses, 164; Oxen and Cows, &c.,262; 

 Pigs, 323. The number of acres of different sorts of corn was in 

 1856 as follows, Wheat, 1208; Barley, 226; Beans, 168; Peas, 

 102 ; Oats, 145. The white crop is usually and for the most part 

 got out by the steam engine ; the beans by the flail. 



The population of the tythings of Bishop's Cannings, Horton, 

 Bourton, and Coate, according to the census of 1851, is 1246. 



