SOIL ANALYSIS AND ITS INTERPRETATION 333 



typical of an area near Maidstone (Cox Heath), much of which 

 was waste land. Its sterility was due to no fault in the soil, 

 which is obviously of excellent type, but to a thin layer of 

 rock lying near the surface. When this was removed a very 

 good soil was obtained. The Harting soil lies on the Upper 

 Greensand in West Sussex ; the rock comes close to the 

 surface, restricting both the root range of the plant and the 

 water supply where it lies horizontally, but proving much less 

 harmful where it dips at any considerable angle. The soil 

 itself is good, although it has rather too much fine silt, and 

 it becomes very productive when the effect of the rock is 

 counteracted. The Dicker soil, while not of the best type, as 

 its fine silt is too high, is far from being hopeless, but it 

 unfortunately lies on a deep bed of stiff clay which keeps it 

 wet in winter and parched in summer. It is therefore very 

 poor, and even with the best management never gives great 

 results. 



The second case, over-drainage, is illustrated by the 

 Shopwyke soil in the same table. It is a fair soil, containing 

 too much fine silt to be in the first rank, but it is spoiled by 

 lying on a deep bed of gravel only nine inches or a foot below 

 the surface — the subsoil sample could only be taken in one or 

 two instances. Consequently it dries out badly in summer 

 and does not repay much expenditure in the way of manures. 



The Wye soil is given as an instance of the normal case 

 where a soil becomes rather heavier in its lower depths, with 

 the result that the movement of water is somewhat impeded 

 without being stopped. Thus the subsoil furnishes a reserve 

 of water for the surface, yet even in wet weather it does not 

 hold up too much water. The Wye soil contrasts with the 

 Dicker soil, the usual case in a clay, where the subsoil contains 

 much more true clay than the surface. 



Chemical Analysis of Soils.^ 



Recourse is had to chemical analysis to discover the 

 amounts of potential and actual plant food in the soil, and the 



^ See Appendix for methods of analysis. 



