vi] CHEQUERED CAREER OF THE CLAYS 87 



have struggled through, their troubles are not at an 

 end, for with the first spell of hot dry weather the 

 soil dries to a solid crust that is little, if any, better 

 for them than the wet sticky mass produced by heavy 

 rain. 



The great difference in agricultural value between 

 clays and loams is sharply revealed by a study of the 

 face of the country. 



Loams, as we have already seen, are very generally 

 fertile and are practically all under cultivation. In 

 a loamy district almost every available piece of land 

 has at one time or another been taken up, and little, 

 if any, waste laud is left Space is economised as 

 much as possible ; there are few, if any, village greens 

 or commons, and even the very lanes and roads 

 are narrow and often worn deep by the heavy traffic 

 of bygone days when road-making was still a 

 lost art. 



The hedges are straightened out and well kept, 

 ditches are filled in unless actually wanted, and the 

 whole country has a well-cared-for appearance. But 

 in a heavy clay district there was less temptation to 

 take in the land so completely. Indeed, some of the 

 worst of the land probably never was taken in at all, 

 but remains covered with forest apparently pretty 

 much in its primeval state, Blean Forest near Can- 

 terbury, King's Wood running along the North Downs, 

 many acres of wood in the Weald of Kent, all occupy 



