THE AGRICULTURE OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 83 



an average rainfall of just under 24 inches, the months from December 

 to May inclusive being the driest, and March having the lowest 

 figures of any. The sunshine figures for the same period indicate an 

 average of about 1,300 hours of bright sunshine. 



The relatively low rainfall figures which are somewhat surprising to 

 the stranger to the county have a considerable bearing on the prosperity 

 or otherwise of a certain farming area in the county. This is the district 

 that is popularly known as the Forest of Sherwood where, on the Bunter 

 Sandstone outcrop, dry periods in the spring of the year are often suffi- 

 cient to ruin farming prospects. 



The Chief Soils 



The soils in the county are almost entirely typical of the underlying 

 geological strata from which they have been derived. The principal soil 

 types are : — 



1 Bunter 



The Bunter outcrop is one of the features of the county in that it 

 occupies an area of approximately 240 square miles, or nearly one-third 

 of the total area. It extends in a straight belt from Nottingham north- 

 wards to Bawtry and is some six or seven miles wide and includes the 

 districts between Worksop and Retford, Mansfield and Southwell. Both 

 high and low-lying ground is included in the area and it is sub-divided 

 into a fine-grained, loamy sand on the one hand and pebble beds on the 

 other. Actually the pebble beds constitute the major part of the area. 

 It can be readily understood that this type of soil constitutes a major 

 agricultural problem in the county, on which the effect of the agricultural 

 depression has been keenly felt in recent years. The pebble bed areas 

 give rise to a very light porous soil, incapable of holding moisture in the 

 natural state Much of the area is given over to waste and common, 

 as is typified by Sherwood Forest. The agricultural productivity of these 

 soils is determined by a variety of factors. Their situation and the 

 character of the subsoil is important, but the primary requirement is the 

 practice of a system of agriculture that will add to the organic matter in 

 the soil so as to increase the water-retaining capacities. In the days 

 when farming was more profitable, high farming was considered the only 

 sound practice on these soils, involving considerable dependence upon 

 livestock in the form of fattening cattle and sheep for the production of 

 farmyard manure, together with the liberal use of organic fertilisers and 

 purchased foodstuffs. The rotation in the old days was the standard four 

 course, which was modified to suit the local conditions of need for more 

 ' body ' in the soil by extending to a five course or longer, through leaving 

 the seeds down for two or more years instead of one. In pre-depression 

 days some support was given to the use of seeds mixtures containing 

 deep-rooting plants similar to those utilised in the typical Clifton Park 

 mixtures. Apart from the porous character of these soils, the inherent 

 fertility is low, since they are markedly deficient in potash, hme and 

 nitrogen, though the phosphoric acid reserve is usually satisfactory. The 

 term ' hungry ' applied to this land is fully descriptive of its reputation, 

 but modern manuring as we understand it to-day is futile on this land 



