Agricultural Capabilities of the Neio Forest. 249 
further on 373, 230, 338, 208, 339, 333, and 311 feet at Picked 
Post, from wliieh place it descends to 137 feet midway between 
that and lling^wood. There is also some liifjh land in the neigh- 
bourhood of Burle)', where 306 and 279 feet are marked ; but 
very near the latter only loC feet at the foot of a hill. 
At the point where one of the main branches of the stream 
which terminates at Lymington crosses the road we have lately 
mentioned, we find the bench mark 230 feet. After pursuing a 
course for a mile, we find it at ISo feet, a fall of nearly 50 feet 
in that distance. Two miles further on we note it at 107 feet. 
Another branch of the same stream has a fall of 70 feet in the 
space of two miles. The average fall of the streams is, how- 
ever, about 24 feet per mile, from their origin to the sea. 
Although there are some plains and much boggy land in the 
Forest, the larger portion of its surface consists of undulated 
land and low hills, the major part of w'hich slopes to the south 
and the west, although some porticm has a northerly and easterly 
aspect. The direction of the streams simply shows the slope of 
the valley through which they run, for that of the land drained 
may lie at right or obtuse angles with these valleys. 
As the highest part of the Forest is less than 400 feet, and the 
highest part of Hampshire upwards of 800 feet, the contrast is 
most favourable, and its moderate elevation goes far to counteract 
the poverty of the soil. 
X. Eainfall. 
The rainfall of a district is important as affecting its profitable 
cultivation, and in determining whether it is more desirable in 
certain cases to grow corn or grass. It is a well known fact that the 
Eastern counties of Britain are particularly suited to the growth 
of corn, and the Western to grass, and this corresponds pretty 
closely to the difference in the rainfall, which is considerably 
greater in the West than in the East. There is a large breadth 
of country Iving in the centre of England which is well adapted 
for either, where the rainlall is not in excess, but where the land, 
on the New Red sandstone, is very favourable for retaining its 
fertilising moisture. Notwithstanding its small rainfall, the 
Eastern counties are celebrated for the growth of roots, for which 
a certain amount of summer moisture is a sine qua non. This 
success is due partly to the fine state of division to which the 
surface of the land is naturally and artificially reduced, and 
partly to the fact that the difference in point of rain between the 
East and the West is not so remarkable or so different in the 
summer as the winter months. The averajje rainfall of the kinff- 
dom is considered to be about 26 inches, and if this is the case, 
