570 New Red Marl. 



reclaim that which at no very distant date was devoted 

 to forest ground and to wild animals. 1 



In the centre of England there are broad tracts of 

 land composed chiefly of New Red Marl and Lias clay. 

 If we stand on the summit of the great escarpment, 

 formed by the Oolitic tableland, we look over the wide 

 flats and undulations formed by these strata. The 

 marl consists of what was once a light kind of clay, 

 mingled with a small percentage of lime ; and when it 

 moulders down on the surface, it naturally forms a fertile 

 soil. A great extent of the arable land in the centre 

 and west of England is formed of these red strata, but 

 often covered with Glacial debris. 



It is worthy of notice that the fruit tree district of 

 Great Britain lie chiefly upon red rocks, sometimes of 

 the Old and sometimes of the New Eed Series. The 

 counties of Devonshire, Herefordshire, and Gloucester- 

 shire, with their numerous orchards, celebrated for 

 cider and perry, lie in great part on these formations, 

 where all the fields and hedgerows are in spring white 

 with the blossoms of innumerable fruit trees. Again, 

 in Scotland, the plain called the Carse of Gowrie, lying 

 between the Sidlaw Hills and the Firth of Tay, 

 stretches over a tract of Old Red Sandstone, and is 

 famous for its apples. What may be the reason of this 

 relation I do not know ; but such is the fact, that 

 soils composed of the New and Old Red Marl and 

 Sandstone, are generally better adapted for such fruit 

 trees than any other in Britain. 



The Lias clay in the centre of England, though often 



1 There are many other forest lands in England, too numerous 

 to mention, some on Eocene strata, some on Boulder-clay, which, 

 by help of deep draining, are gradually becoming cultivated 

 regions. 



