CHAPTER VIII 

 SOIL ANALYSES (Reports, I, 4; IV, i) 



SOME account of the character of the soil at the Woburn 

 Experimental Fruit Farm, so far as it can be elucidated by 

 analysis, must be given by way of an introduction to a descrip- 

 tion of the results of the manurial experiments conducted there. 



The soil consists mainly of a sandy loam, resting on a bed of 

 Oxford clay, the good surface soil being about seven inches 

 deep. There is, however, a very considerable difference between 

 the soil in the upper portion of the ground, A, B, C, in the 

 plan, on the following page, and the lower portion, D, E, which 

 latter contains so little sand, and such a large proportion of clay, 

 that it can only be described as a clay soil. The dotted lines, 

 a, b, c, d, indicate the line of separation between these two 

 classes of soil. 



The subsoil consists of a bed of clay of considerable depth. 

 Borings were sunk in two places to forty-five feet below the 

 surface, without reaching the bottom of it. At depths below 

 about ten feet the clay is blue, and in parts very hard. It does 

 not appear to contain any stones, and the surface soil also con- 

 tains very few about 2 per cent, of the weight of dried soil. 



Throughout the greater part of the field there is a gentle 

 slope towards a brook, which runs along the south-west side of 

 it. The highest point of the ground is marked H on the plan, 

 the heights at other points, measured in feet below H, being 

 given by values enclosed in circles. The highest point is about 

 15*4 feet above the road by the brook, the distance from this 

 road being 750 feet, and the average slope, therefore, i in 49. 



The brook runs between banks, three to four feet high; it 

 is never dry, and in flood time it occasionally overflows its banks, 

 swamping the lower portion of the ground : and it is probably 

 due to such flooding in past years that the differences between 

 the upper and lower portions of the ground are to be attributed. 



A summary of the analyses of the soil in these two portions 

 of the farm is given in the accompanying tables, together with 

 a 81 



