86 THE PRINCIPLES OF ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 



Worcestershire, and Monmouthshire are very rich red soils, 

 and in South Devon also, in the neighbourhood of Tor- 

 quay, there are rich soils, and in Cornwall, where there 

 are many districts in which the earliest peas, new potatoes, 

 and vegetables for the London market are reared all upon 

 the old red sandstone. We meet with them in Cornwall, 

 Devonshire, Monmouth, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, and 

 Brecknockshire ; and then again the old red sandstone crops 

 out in Berwickshire to a certain limited extent, but more 

 extensively in Lothian, where it forms the basis of the cele- 

 brated East Lothian farming, extending right away down 

 from the Frith of Clyde to Forth, and to Dunbar. 



The fertility of the old red sandstone is very high in this 

 part of the United Kingdom, the rents having been to my own 

 knowledge as much as 5 per acre over large areas. I have seen 

 five hundred acres of land lying on the old red sandstone let 

 at 2500 a year ; but rents have come down a good deal in 

 late years, though perhaps not so much as some of us would 

 at first imagine. The old red sandstone occupies a posi- 

 tion on the east of Scotland in Caithness, in Cromartie, 

 round the Moray Firth, and it has been pointed out as an 

 extraordinary fact that wheat cultivation can be carried on 

 upon the soils of the old red sandstone further north than on 

 any other formation. 



With reference to the remaining formations the Silurian, 

 the Cambrian, and Laurentian -they run still further west 

 and north. They form the highlands of Devon, of Wales, of 

 the highlands of Cumberland and of Scotland. On these 

 formations are vast areas under sheep or pastoral farming, 

 but we need not expect to find any large amount of land 

 suitable for arable purposes. 



