On the Farming of Suffolk. 



263 



vels. The next stratum above the London clay, the Crag, is also limited 

 in extent. It is a ferruginous sand, full of shells, and was ^ce much 

 used as a dressing for clay lands. At Walton on the Naze it is about 

 two yards thick, and abounds with spiral univalves, sharks' teeth, &c. 

 At Harwich it is scarcely discoverable, and at Felixstow it is reduced 

 to a shingle bed, consisting chiefly of nodules containing 56 per cent, 

 of phosphate of lime. Mr. Lawes had several tons of this ground up 

 for manure. At Aldborough and Orford the crag becomes coralline, and 

 is often a complete coral reef. At Woodbridge there is the red crag, 

 with the same shells as at Walton ; and near Southwold, the newest 

 beds of crag containing teeth of the mastodon and elephant, and shells 

 of moUusks still living on our coast. Between Southwold and Yar- 

 mouth the cliff consists of sand and gravel, with a bed of clay 'till,' 

 sometimes forming their base, and again rising up to the middle or to 

 the surface. The ' till' is seldom a clay impervious to water, it usually 

 contains a great quantity of chalk ; in other parts it consists entirely of 

 the wreck of the Kirameridge clay, oolites, &c., which once filled up 

 the present ' level of the fens ' with a thousand feet of strata." 



Heavy Land or Strong Loam. — It will be seen by the map 

 that this district takes in the great body of tlie county, extending 

 from the S. to the N. extremity, and from the S.W. nearly to the 

 N.E. corner; this throughout its whole extent consists chiefly of a 

 clayey loam on a clayey or marly subsoil, in some places the soil 

 takes more the character of clay, in others that of a loam. The 

 variations from this are but slight. On referring to the map, it will 

 be seen that chalk pits are dotted in various places — wherever 

 they occur, the soil in their immediate vicinity of course partakes 

 of a chalky character in a greater or less degree. About Wey- 

 bread and Mendham the soil in some places is of a sandy nature. 

 Along the course of the Waveney are rich grazing marshes com- 

 posed of alluvial soil. The low hills that border the Waveney 

 have frequently stiff clay on their summits, and light sandy land 

 in the bottoms. Throughout the heavy lands," as this is locally 

 termed in contradistinction to the light lands," or sandy dis- 

 tricts, the soil bordering on the rivers is the richest, the most 

 easily cultivated, and therefore the best land for the farmer, and 

 to be preferred to the retentive soil that generally occurs. 



Eastern Sands. — The tract of land on the eastern side of the 

 county, bordering on the sea-coast, is more or less of a sandy 

 nature, a great portion of which is highly cultivated, though in 

 some parts the soil is of a very inferior description, sometimes a 

 blowing sand, and still lying almost w^aste. A large extent of wild 

 heath land is to be seen in travelling from Wickham- Market to 

 Orford ; the road passes over Tunstall heath, vrhich has every 

 appearance of barrenness. And again, the country between Or- 

 ford and Woodbridge, and a large portion of Wilford Hundred, 

 the crops during my ride through that part in the summer gave 



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