256 
Agricultural Capabilities of the New Forest. 
course from nortli-cast to south-west, offers the most favourable 
facilities for the application of chalk, as it can be brought either 
from North Hampshire or Dorsetshire at a very moderate ex- 
pense. It may be laid down either at Lyndhurst Road, Beau- 
lieu Road, or Holmsley, at a cost of from 3s. to 4s. per ton. If 
another Is. per ton is allowed for carting on the land, '10 tons 
can be applied per acre at an expense of from 41. to 51. ; and as 
this 20 tons would supply about 10 tons of lime, it may be 
considered amply sufficient. 
In this country the fertility of land depends as much or more 
on its mechanical as on its chemical condition, mote particu- 
larly as its deficiencies in the latter respect can be more easily 
supplied by artificial means. Therefore, highly as we may 
estimate the phosphate, the potash, and the ammonia found 
in various degrees in the most fertile land, yet the capability of 
working freely under tillage, and the power of absorbing and retain- 
ing moisture sufficiently, is of more importance still. Indeed, it 
is the absence of this faculty that makes it so extremely doubtful 
whether the thin white gravel which occupies the high land in the 
northern part of the Forest will pa}' for cultivation ; and in support 
of this view it is worthy of note that such land is furthest 
removed from the marl-pits, which are mostly to be found in the 
south, and whose aid the land in question most requires. It 
should be observed, that at Holmsley the railway cuts through a 
marl, and thus an almost unlimited supply can be afforded to 
soils along the line, and also, for that matter, considerably 
beyond it. 
From various analyses made of the marls of the Forest, we 
may roughly consider them as containing 50 per cent, of clay 
and 25 per cent, of carbonate of lime, with no phosphate of 
lime ; whilst chalk contains about 90 per cent, of carbonate 
of lime and often appreciable percentages of phosphate of lime. 
It will require, therefore, 70 tons of marl to supply the same 
quantity of carbonate of lime that would be furnished by 20 
tons of chalk ; so that if the object of the application were to 
supply the carbonate of lime to the soil, and the cartage was 
three miles respectively either from the marl-pit or the railway- 
station, the chalk could be applied at a cost of 51. lOs. per acre, 
whilst the expenses of the marl would not be less than 8/. It is 
only in cases where the soil is exceedingly thin, arid, and 
deficient in aluminous matter that the latter expenditure will be 
justified, or in instances at a much less distance from the marl- 
pit. We may take it as a rule established by precedent that the 
minimum quantity of chalk that should be applied to any soil 
requiring it would be 14 tons per acre. It would take some 40 
