28 Soil. 



the lower grounds. This system of deteriorating the hills, 

 ought to he counteracted, by cultivating green crops, and 

 consuming them upon the land/ Gluey as many of these hills 

 now are, they may be rendered friable by animal and other 

 manures. 



The means of ameliorating the texture of chalky soils, 

 are, either the application of clayey and sandy loams, or 

 pure clay marl, or where the staple is deficient, the use of 

 great quantities of peat, or of water-fed earth. The chalk 

 stratum, mostly, or perhaps generally, lies upon a thick bed 

 of black or blue tenacious marie, of a rich quality, which 

 ought to be dug up, and mixed with the chalk, to cure its 

 defects, as well as to enrich it( 91 ). 



The ashes of a sort of peat produced in some parts of 

 Berkshire and Bedfordshire, of a red colour, and which 

 abound with iron, are found to be highly beneficial to chalky 

 soils, particularly when sown with trefoil, and other grasses. 

 On such soils, these ashes are of use, not only for crops of 

 barley, but likewise even of oats ( 9 *). 



Chalky soils are in general fitter for tillage than for 

 grazing ; for, without the plough, the peculiar advantages 

 derived from this soil by sainfoin, (one of the most valuable 

 grasses we owe to the bounty of Providence), could not be 

 obtained. The plough, however, ought not to extend to 

 those fine chalky downs, (called ewe leases in Dorsetshire), 

 which, by a very attentive management, during a number 

 of years, have been brought to a considerable degree of fer- 

 tility, as grazing land, and which are so useful to sheep in 

 the winter season ( 93 ). 



A chalky soil that has been in tillage, permits water to 

 pass through it so freely in winter, and is so pervious to 

 the sun's rays in summer, that it is the work of an age to 

 make it a good pasture of natural grasses, more especially 

 when the chalk lies near the surface. Hence, in the wes- 

 tern counties of England, several thousands of acres of 

 this soil, though not ploughed for thirty years, have scarcely 

 any grass of tolerable quality upon them, and are literally 

 worth nothing ( 94 ). Such soils ought to be cultivated, as a 

 preparation for sainfoin, in the following manner : 1st year, 

 Pare and burn for turnips, to be eaten on the land by sheep, 

 with the aid of some fodder ; 2d, Barley, to be sown very 

 early with clover seed ; 3d, Clover, eaten off by sheep ; 

 4th, Wheat ; 5th, Turnips, with manure ; and, 6th, Bar- 

 ley with sainfoin. The corn crops must be carefully weeded, 

 and in particular cleared of charlock. Under this system, 

 which has been successfully practised by a celebrated Kent- 



