CHAPTER V 



SOIL AND SURFACE CONDITIONS IN THE BRITISH ISLES 



The term 'soil' may be interpreted in so m.any different 

 ways that it is scarcely safe to use the word in connection 

 with forestry without stating- clearly what is meant by it, 

 To the agriculturist or gardener soil is usually looked 

 upon as a mixture of vegetable and mineral matter 

 containing all the elements necessary for the support of 

 plant life in a readily available form, and imbedded in 

 a matrix which admits of easy ploughing, digging, or 

 harrowing. For the latter operations to be performed 

 economically the soil nuist chiefly consist of fine particles, 

 which when dry are usually designated dust, when wet, 

 mud. Rocks, boulders, and stones, too large to be turned 

 over with the spade or plough, must be absent from the 

 first foot or so from the surface, but below that depth the 

 farmer or gardener is not directly, although probably 

 indirectly, affected, according to climate and other cir- 

 cumstances. Impervious rock or clay, for instance, a few 

 inches below the surface, affects the farmer and gardener 

 by reason of the rapidity with which the soils become 

 waterlogged in wet, and parched or baked in dry weather ; 

 otherwise the subsoil is of little consequence. 



To the grower of timber, however, soil must be considered 

 in a different light. To the planter the actual surface 

 conditions are important only so far as they facilitate or 

 obstruct the process of planting, and rocks or coarse 

 stones usually increase the work of planting, according to 

 the size or species which have to be used ; otherwise the 

 surface alone is unimportant as compared with the general 



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