6 The Natural History of Selborne 



To the north-west, north and east of the village, is a range of fair 

 enclosures, consisting of what is called white malm, 1 a sort of rotten 

 or rubble stone, which, when turned up to the frost and rain, moulders 

 to pieces, and becomes manure to itself.* 



Still on to the north-east, and a step lower, is a kind of white 

 land, 2 neither chalk nor clay, neither fit for pasture nor for the 

 plough, yet kindly for hops, which root deep in the freestone, and 

 have their poles and wood for charcoal growing just at hand. The 

 white soil produces the brightest hops. 



As the parish still inclines down towards Wolmer Forest, at the 

 juncture of the clays and sand the soil becomes a wet, sandy loam, 

 remarkable for timber, and infamous for roads. The oaks of 

 Temple and Blackmoor stand high in the estimation of purveyors, 

 and have furnished much naval timber ; while the trees on the free- 

 stone grow large, but are what workmen call shaky, and so brittle as 

 often to fall to pieces in sawing. Beyond the sandy loam the soil 

 becomes a hungry lean sand, till it mingles with the forest ; and will 

 produce little without the assistance of lime and turnips. 



* This soil produces good wheat and clover. 



1 Now known as Chlorine Marl : it contains abundant nodules of phosphates, 

 which give it great fertility. ED. - Lower Greensand. ED. 



