104 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



lower Oolite and Oxford clay is the village of Kidlington, about seven 

 miles north of Oxford ; this is known as the " Apricot Village," from the 

 number of apricots grown on the cottages in the village. Near it is a 

 forty acre orchard with an output estimated at 12,000 bushels. 



The Middle Oolite includes the Oxford clays as its principal member ; 

 this clay is often rich in lime and affords a good dairying pasture 

 in Dorset, North Wilts, and Huntingdon. The pasture over this clay in 

 Wilts and Somerset rents at 20s. to 60s. per acre, but in some parts 

 it is poor and covered with ant-hills. The extensive fens of Lincoln, 

 Northampton, Huntingdon, Cambridge and Norfolk rest on the Oxford 

 clay. In Bedford, Huntingdon, Northampton, and Lincoln, a con- 

 siderable acreage of this clay is cultivated. 



The. Ujiper Oolite is a narrow band only a few miles wide ; it includes 

 the Kimmeridge clay, which produces soil of fair quality, generally rich 

 in lime, mostly in grass. This is the case at Aylesbury, where cows and 

 ducks thrive under the " prune " plum trees. 



The Lower Cretaceous series includes the Hastings sand, Weald clay, 

 Kentish Rag, and Lower Greensand. 



The Hastings Sand (or iron sand). — These sands extend over an 

 area some forty miles long by twenty miles wide in Sussex and Kent, 

 including Horsham, East Grinstead, Tunbridge Wells, Uckfield, Cran- 

 brook, Tenterden, and Battle. This formation is composed of sand 

 and sandstone, with occasional beds of clay and marl. The ground is 

 generally hilly, the scenery varied and beautiful, but the soil is not 

 generally favourable to agriculture, the average rent being 12s. to 20s. 

 per acre. 



The Greensands form a narrow strip running from Dorset to the 

 coast in Yorkshire, being in no place more than eight or ten miles wide ; 

 these sands also skirt the Weald of Kent, Sussex, and East Hampshire, 

 as a narrow border between the Weald clay and the chalk. 



Much of the lower greensand is light and poor, often covered with 

 heath ; the market garden land of Sandy and Biggleswade is, however, 

 an exception, due probably to admixture with other rock. Here seeds 

 are grown, onions and cauliflowers for pickling, and Brussels sprouts and 

 carrots are largely produced for the London markets. The rent of land 

 for market gardening and seed growing reaches £1, £8, and even £9 the 

 acre. 



The Weald Clay surrounds the Hastings sand, as a horseshoe, on its 

 inland border in Sussex and Kent ; it is four to six miles wide, being 

 low and flat land. The parts of Sussex over this clay used to be forest, 

 and still excellent oak is grown, unfortunately of less value now than 

 when our navy was built of oak. This is a fine-grained, usually pale- 

 coloured clay, which forms a paste when wet, and when dry hardens like 

 a brick ; when ploughed it cuts like soap, and the furrow turns over 

 unbroken. It naturally forms poor, wet pasture ; however, when drained, 

 it produces excellent farm crops, and grows good fruit at Paddock Wood, 

 Maiden, and Headoorn. 



The Kentish Iiagstone on this formation occurs in the neighbourhood 

 of Maidstone, Ightham, and Flaxtol. The district is noted for cob-nuts. 

 Good hop, fruit, and market garden land near Maidstone lets at £4 to 



