20] A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



consisting of friable marl or loam. There are also various mixed 

 soils, which may be termed loamy, clayey, gravelly, sandy, peaty, 

 &c. according as the different materials preponderate in the compo- 

 sition of them. 



The basis of our soils consists of the primitive earths, (silica), 

 sand (alumina), clay, and lime or calcareous earth. If sand most 

 abounds, the soil is dry ; if clay preponderates, the soil is wet : 

 lime and magnesia are correctors, increasing the moisture of sand, 

 and diminishing the wetness of clay, and different proportions of 

 these earths will form soils of every degree of dryness or moisture. 

 According to modern chemistry, the fertility of all soils is derived 

 from carbon, which is charcoal in a pure state, freed from its earthy 

 and saline particles. No soil can be fertile without carbon : it 

 should contain one-sixteenth its weight of carbon, but it must exist 

 in the soil in a particular state of combination, so as to become 

 soluble in water, to promote fertility. Dunghill-water contains 

 much carbon : in lime-stone the lime is united with carbonic acid in 

 the proportion of about 43 per cent. Putrescent manures part with 

 their carbon during the process of putrefaction : it is absorbed by 

 the soil, and thence by the plants growing therein. 



Acres. 



Division of Soils. Gross acres of the county, as stated 



before, 780,800 



Deduct for roads, waters, buildings, and yards, one acre in twenty, 39,040 

 Waste-lands, woods, and impracticable land. These were 1 Acres, -\ 



reckoned, in 1794, at / 141 > 760 I 



Inclosed since, tol815, .Sutton-Coldfield, Needwood Forest, ~) 

 and different Commons,) probably / 



760 



Deduct 150,800 



Remains, cultivated land, 630,000 



Of the Waste -lands, the reclaimable part is now probably reduced to 70,000 



Of the 630,000 acres of cultivated land, including the pasture part of 

 Parks, 100,000 acres may be meadow and pasture, and 530,000 acres 

 arable : of this may be reckoned, 



Two-fifths clay loam, or friable mixed loam, 212,000 



Two-fifths gravelly mixed loams, including lime-stone soils, 212,000 



One-fifth lighter soils, capable of turnip-culture, 106,000 



530,000 



Water. The county is well watered, principally by the Trent, 

 and its contributary streams. The Trent rises in the Moorlands, 

 near Biddulph : it takes a winding course, first southerly, then 

 south-easterly and easterly, and lastly north-easterly ; and, after 

 washing the county in a course of upwards of fifty miles, leaves it 



