Farming of Surrey. 



399 



is naturally stiff and wet, and as from its position it invariably 

 occurs on farms, the principal portion of which is of a light 

 loamy, or rubbly nature, its management with respect to 

 drainage, &:c. is frequently neglected. The gait is capable of 

 the greatest improvement by draining, and may then be ranked 

 as some of the finest and most productive land in the county. 



The Lower Greensand forms one of the most picturesque dis- 

 tricts in Surrey ; the abrupt character of the surface however, 

 and the great and sudden changes in the quality of the soil, 

 have greatly diminished its importance as an agricultural dis- 

 trict : the soil varies from a sharp sand to the richest loam. 

 Upon almost every farm, and often in the same field, land is to 

 be found varying between the two extremes ; the best land lies 

 generally in the low ground, while the brows are frequently too 

 poor to be cultivated, and have for the most part been sown 

 with gorse, or planted with fir. 



The Chalk Downs have a thin flinty soil, covered with a short 

 turf; they are in most instances cultivated as far up their base 

 as circumstances will permit ; the land under the downs is of a 

 thin rubbly nature, gradually becoming deeper, mitil it merges 

 into the sands and loams below. 



The Bagshot Sands vary from the black sand of the heath ta 

 the deep gravelly loams and heavy land in the neighbourhood 

 of Chertsey. 



The London Clay is deeper, less tenacious, and more pro- 

 ductive than the clay of the Weald. 



The Tertiary series, which overlies the chalk at Walton-on- 

 the-Hill, Banstead, and to a less extent nearer Guildford, con- 

 sists of flinty clays, loams, and heaths. 



The preceding is a brief notice of the principal deposition o£ 

 the soils of the county ; at the junction of the various strata a 

 soil is produced partaking of a calcareous, loamy, or heavy 

 nature, as the case may be ; while on the banks of the Thames 

 and in some few other localities, an alluvial deposit is found. 



A more detailed account of the character of the soils will be 

 given when we come to a description of the farming of the 

 different districts. 



The soils of the county of Surrey are so various and unequally 

 distributed that it would be impossible to find any very exten- 

 sive tract of land of an uniform character. In noticing the 

 various agricultural districts the writer will strictly adhere to 

 the geological divisions, and will endeavour to give as clear an 

 idea of the capabilities of the soil, and the modes of farming, as 

 the variety of the subject will admit. 



The Bagshot Sands. — A considerable portion of this forma- 

 tion is included by the sands of Bagshot Heath, but it must not 



