20 THE ESSEX EXPERIMENTS 



in cultivating these soils. After rain the land remains sticky and wet 

 for a long time, and it is only too often necessary to postpone the 

 sowing of oats and wheat until the spring. During May and June, 

 which are dry months in Essex, the soil 'caps' and cracks, and the 

 crops suffer severely from drought. 



An inspection of the grass-land shows that much of it is of the 

 poorest quality. It is but rare that the permanent grass receives 

 any manurial treatment, and when reserved for hay it is only in 

 favourable years that it passes the ton to the acre level in the western 

 and moister part of the county, whilst in the eastern and drier part 

 of the county crops of 7-16 cwts. of hay per acre are the rule, and it 

 very frequently happens that the crop is not worth cutting and is 

 fed off. 



For the purposes of the experiments soils of the boulder clay and 

 London clay formations were selected. A detailed mechanical and 

 chemical analysis of these soils is given in Table VII. The soil at 

 Horndon is a typical London Clay, that at Latchingdon is better 

 described as a London clay-loam, whilst at Lambourne End the 

 London Clay is covered by a thick matted turf which extends its 

 influence to a depth of several inches. The soils at Tysea Hill and 

 Martin's Hearne are typical heavy Boulder Clay soils lying immediately 

 on top of the London clay. At Farnham and Hassobury the boulder 

 clay rests immediately on top of the chalk, which is about 6-8 feet 

 below the surface at Farnham, and 2 feet below the surface at 

 Hassobury. 



RAINFALL 



The rainfall records from the various rainfall stations in the county 

 show considerable fluctuations. If the county is divided into three 

 equal portions by parallel lines running north and south, the most 

 easterly portion might fairly be labelled the driest district in England, 

 the average annual rainfall being approximately 20 inches. (For 

 Shoeburyness the 35 years' average is 19-28 inches.) The middle 

 portion of the county has an average annual rainfall of 23 to 24 inches, 

 the 35 years' average for Chelmsford being 23-02 inches, for Booking 

 23-82, and for Earl's Colne 23-42 inches. The westerly portion of the 

 county is considerably wetter, the average annual rainfall varying 

 from 25 to 30 inches, and for most of the stations, for which only 

 short records are available, the average is nearer the latter than 

 the former figure. In the east of the county the low rainfall during 

 the month of May and the warm drying weather which is usually 



