^ NORFOLK. 13 



Two reafons may be offered in explanatioi| 

 of this effedt : the pan, year after year, and, 

 perhaps, century after century, has been a 

 receptacle of the feeds of weeds ; which, by 

 being trodden or ocherwife prefled into it, 

 have remained there, locked up from the fui> 

 and air, and, thereby, deprived of the powtr 

 of vegetation. But no fooncr are thefc feeds 

 releafed from tbcir confinement by being 

 brought to the furfacc wiih the plow, than 

 they vegetate in myriads to the annoyance 

 of the crop. 



The other reafon is this : — the firm clofe 

 contexture of the pan renders it in a degree 

 water-tight; it is, at leaft, a check to the 

 rain-water, which finks through the foil ; prq- 

 longing its flay in the fphere of vegetation. 

 But the pan being broken, the filter is no 

 more ; and the rain, which is not imme- 

 diately retained by the foil, efcapes irretriev- 

 ably into an infatiable bed of fand, — or fome 

 other abforbent fubfoil. 



For, if we except a few quickfands, which 

 occur on the margins of meadows, and the 

 peat-bogs which occupy their areas, there is nor, 



-in the Diflrid:, an acre of retentive subsoil. 



The 



