42 THE SOUTH DOWNS 



high rainfall that occurs on the higher chalk country 

 the land is probably left too rich for barley after roots 

 folded off, yet it is not considered good enough to 

 carry two straw crops in succession. The tops of the 

 downs are covered with the same thin black soil that 

 we had before noticed near the edge of the Wiltshire 

 Downs ; so regular is the layer of flints resting on the 

 chalk rock immediately below the grass that the 

 surface of many of the downs is being systematically 

 dug for flints for road metal, to the destruction for 

 many years to come of the exquisite turf which is the 

 delight of every traveller on these heights. Alternate 

 rape and oats are usually grown on such of these 

 uplands as remain under the plough, and the area of 

 cultivated land has again shown some tendency to 

 expand with the rising corn prices of the last few 

 years. The upland is from time to time sown down 

 for a few years, though curiously enough neither 

 sainfoin nor lucerne is much used for this purpose. 

 The black soil is usually completely decalcified so that 

 basic slag has proved a valuable fertilizer, contrary 

 to the usual forecast. The enormous improvement, 

 amounting almost to a revolution, that basic slag will 

 effect in the high down pastures has been one of the 

 most astonishing results of recent experiments. 



The Down farms run large, and general report says 

 that the land is in fewer hands nowadays than it was 

 twenty years ago ; indeed, we heard of one man who 

 farms a strip of land extending from Rottingdean to 

 Lewes, five miles across country. Such increases in 

 the area farmed by one man are not to be detected 

 in the statistics issued by the Board of Agriculture, 

 which almost uniformly show a decrease in the number 

 of holdings over 300 acres, both since 1885 and 

 since 1905. The reason for this discrepancy between 



