110 The soil cmd the countryside 



lie too high the land is generally all taken up, even the 

 roads are narrow and there are few commons. The 

 hedges are straight and cut short, the farm houses 

 and buildings are well kept, and there is a general air of 

 prosperity all round. Good elms grow and almost any 

 tree that is planted will succeed. Loams shade off on 

 one side into sand ; the very fertile sands already de- 

 scribed might quite truly be called sandy loams. On 

 the other side they shade off into clays ; the heavy 

 loams used to be splendid wheat soils, but are now, 

 like clays, often of little value. But they form pleasant, 

 undulating country, nicely wooded, and dotted over 

 with thatched cottages; the fields are less wet and 

 the roads are rather better than on the clays. When 

 properly managed they make excellent grass land. 



Chalky soils stand out quite sharply from all others : 

 their white colour, their lime kilns now often disused, 

 their noble beech trees, and, above all, the great variety 

 of flowering plants enable the traveller at once to 

 know that he is on the chalk. Many plants like chalk 

 and these may be found in abundance, but some, such 

 as foxgloves, heather, broom or rhododendrons cannot 

 tolerate it at all, and so they will not grow. 



Chalk, like sand, is dry, and the roads can be traversed 

 very soon after rain. They are not very good, however ; 

 often they are only mended with flints, which occur in 

 the chalk and are therefore easily obtainable, and the 

 sharp fragments play sad havoc with bicycle tyres. 

 The bye roads and lanes are often narrow, winding, and 

 worn deep especially at the foot of the hills, so that 

 the banks get a fair amount of moisture and carry 

 a dense vegetation. Among the profusion of flowers 

 you can find scabious, the bedstraws, vetches, ragwort, 



