278 Comparative Agriculture of England and Wales. 
Down land, tlie grass of which greatly resembles that of the 
Chalk Downs, both having calcareous soils. The heights attained 
by the southern Oolite are much less than those of the North 
Riding ; and even the high regions of the former are now invaded 
by the steam plough. Lincoln Heath holds an intermediate place 
between the northern and southern Oolites. It is for the most 
part sandy, and of moderate elevation. Few districts in England 
have undergone so remarkable a change in character. " Within 
living memory," writes Mr. Pusey in 1843, " Lincoln Heath 
was not only without culture, but without even a road." * It is 
now a continuous tract of good arable land. 
The remaining areas of waste land are small in extent, al- 
though their aggregate acreage is considerable. The Malvern 
Hills, on the borders of Hereford and Worcester, rise to heights 
exceeding 1000 feet, but their total area is small. They consist 
of a ridge of Palseozoic rocks rising from beneath the newer 
formations. Charnwood Forest, in Leicestershire, is another 
mass of slaty rocks, formerly waste land, but now chiefly en- 
closed ; the summit is only 850 feet above the sea. 
Along the New Red Sandstone there is some waste land, 
chiefly on the conglomerate beds ; but much of this is being 
enclosed. The neighbouring marls are of immense value for 
dressing this newly enclosed land. The Lower Greensand has 
a good deal of waste land, especially in Surrey. Here, again, 
there is a marl obtainable for improving the land, part of the 
neighbouring Gault Clay being sufficiently calcareous. The 
Tertiary beds afford a good deal of waste land, also in 
Surrey, overlying the Bagshot Sands. In Hampshire the New 
Forest lies on Tertiary sands ; but here, too, marl is to be had. 
A large proportion of the waste lands of Dorset overlie the 
Tertiarics. The unreturned area of Surrey is very large. Much 
of this is included in the Metropolitan area, and land thus 
occupied is not at present separable from waste ; but the main 
cause of the low position taken by Surrey amongst the English 
counties is the large area of sandy waste land it contains. 
From this very superficial survey of the waste lands of 
England we see that the larger part is at a high level, and is not 
available for arable culture under our present climate. Should the 
climate of the high land of England become more suited to corn- 
growing, much of it will, in time, be reclaimed ; but even now 
it might in large part be improved for pasturage, and not a little 
taken into arable culture. Of the smaller areas last noticed, 
there are none in which climate exerts a sufficiently unfavourable 
* " On the Agricultural Improvements in Lincolnshire," — 'Journal of the Royal 
Agricultural Society,' vol. iv. p. 287. 
