42 THE BOOK OF THE ROSE CHAP. 
but I do not suppose that anyone can accurately 
appraise the value of a soil for Rose-growing by 
simple examination, and even chemical analysis is 
sometimes fallacious. The test of results is the best 
and most reliable, and the value of land for wheat or 
pasture (either of which is a good guide) is well 
understood by local men in any part of the country. 
One field will often differ very much in value from 
another that looks just the same; but this is all well 
known, as to practical results, by the farmers and 
labourers on the spot, and much reliance should be 
placed upon their opinion, in conjunction with ex- 
amination of the soil, in test holes to the depth of 
two or three feet at least. The best wheat land, 
high-rented pasture, a neighbourhood where the 
English oaks and elms grow large and the hedges are 
vigorous and strong, with long clean healthy shoots 
—such signs as these will be better guides to the 
seeker for a Rose soil than geological maps, which 
often give no indication as to the nature of the 
surface. 
The principal soils likely to be found are clay, 
loam, gravel, chalk, and sand. 
Cray.—The general idea is that clay land is most 
suitable for Roses; but there is a very great differ- 
ence in the fertility of clays, from the poor blue 
shale clay of the Weald of Sussex to the rich yellow 
unctuous butter that feeds fat the Roses of Col- 
chester. The grey, or light-coloured boulder clay is 
often very deficient in humus, and requires a good 
deal of manure, or better still dark-coloured soil, to 
be mixed with it. In this matter there can be no 
better guide, as I have said, than the local knowledge 
which has been gained by generations of experience 
