ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 89 



great difference between judging of the quality of land and 

 of the value of land, either as regards rent or purchasing. 

 Therefore it may be worth while to consider that the 

 quality of land that is to say, the quality as indicated by 

 the previous numerous considerations makes one, and only 

 one, of the elements of value. Value depends in a great 

 measure upon position. Fertile land removed from civiliz- 

 ation is of no value. Barren land placed in the midst of 

 the city of London is of immense value ; so that the value 

 of land is rather fixed by its position than by its fertility. 

 The value of land depends upon the state in which it is found 

 with reference to fencing, roads, cottages, house and build- 

 ings, water supply, facilities for working it, its tenure and 

 other considerations, such as the burden, of rates or other 

 charges to which the land is liable. It may be in the form 

 of tithe, or it may be in the form of rates of various kinds. 

 All of these matters have to be taken into account before we 

 can in any way fix either the selling or the rental value of 

 land ; so we must not confuse quality and value together, and 

 think that because there are certain rules by which to judge 

 >f the quality of land, we are in a position to go out and value it. 

 Soils may be divided into two great classes : first into 

 rhat are called sedentary soils, which occupy the position 

 which they were formed, as, for example, when a light- 

 )pped chalk soil is found resting upon a chalk foundation, 

 a strong clay soil resting upon its native lias or its native 

 Ixford clay. Those are sedentary soils. These are the soils 

 rhich may be fairly presupposed will resemble in general 

 character the rocks upon which they rest. And in the second 

 )lace we speak of another class of soils which are termed 

 sported soils soils which have been brought from a 

 listance, and which are best illustrated by a class of soils 

 already named and already described as alluvial. These soils 

 have been sorted and deposited by the action of running water. 



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