66o 



Such a soil must naturally be rich. It also shows how a trap rock 

 soil is very little benefited by an application of lime, except on first 

 breaking it up into arable land. The rain having washed the lime 

 down into the soil, it is brought up again by continual ploughing. 



I have said that the stratitied rocks lie over each other in hori- 

 zontal layers. It might be supposed that only the later layers of 

 the sedimentary rocks would be exposed on the surface of the 

 earth. However, the upheavals that have taken place from time to 

 time have tilted up extensi e ridges of the lower rocks and exposed 

 them on the surface. Also the denudation of the upper strata have 

 exposed large tracts of the older strata, forming a variety of soils. 

 Of these soils, where one rincls a soil produced from the new or old 

 red sandstone, or the millstone grits, it is almost always naturally 

 productive. When the soils from the different strata intermingle 

 there is generally produced a productive soil, even though each of 

 the strata from which it is composed is individually of a poor 

 nature. 



Thus the intermingling of a sandy and calcareous soil wi 

 generally produce a good barley soil, and when a clay and lim< 

 stone mix there is generally produced a soil good for growing 

 wheat. 



Soils are generally uniform in their mineral constitution in tl 

 same district ; but it not infrequently happens that a great d 

 ence occurs within a very short distance. This is accounted fc 

 by some physical characteristic of the land, or the manner in whi< 

 one rock lies on another. The following sketch will explain 

 some extent how the different soils are formed, and how there m: 

 be a variation within a comparatively short distance : 





A i> an unstratificd rock ; I is a I i me- tone ; 2, .1 sandstone ; and 3 a slate. 



Supposing that the points A and B are some miles apart, it is 

 quite evident that there will be a diversity of soils between these 

 points. liv the denudation that has taken place on I, and to 

 greater extent on 2, an undulation is caused which has exposed 

 at I) and C, and the soils at C and I) will be similar. Th 

 on the rise- on 3 up to A will be different to C and 1) ; i 

 and 2 will be clilieient to either of these; there will still 

 be a different soil at the place where i and 2 intermix. 

 Further, it" we say that i, j, and 3 in themselves are compara- 

 tively poor soils, it will generally be found that where i and 2 mix, 







