Comparative Agriculhire of England and Wales. 279 
influence to prevent arable culture. All the New Red Sand- 
stone area is within the vertical range of wheat or barley. Of 
the Lower Greensand wastes in Surrey, and the much smaller areas 
of sandy wastes overlying the Wealden beds of Sussex, some may 
possibly be above the height at which wheat can now be grown with 
safety and profit, but even there crops of roots and barley will some 
day be raised. Speaking generally, then, we may say that the 
characteristic crops, on land yet to be reclaimed, will be turnips 
and barley, with, of course, a considerable acreage of oats. But 
the future increased production of wheat must be obtained mainly 
by improved cultivation of land already under the plough, or by 
breaking up inferior pasture on the heavier soils. 
There is one important district of high land not noticed above, 
because little or none of it is, or ought to be, classed as waste 
land. The Chalk hills of Eng^land cover a large extent of 
country. Commencing on the Yorkshire coast at Flamborough 
Head, they range east and south through the East Riding, 
and south through Lincolnshire, formins: the "Wolds" of those 
counties. In Norfolk they recommence, and occupy areas, more 
or less extensive, of the following counties: Suffolk, Essex, Cam- 
bridge, Herts, Bedford (a small tract only), Bucks, Oxford, Berks, 
Wilts, Dorset, Hants, Surrey, Sussex, and Kent. The summit 
of this range is Inkpen Beacon, 972 feet, at the meeting-point of 
Hants, Wilts, and Berks. Very frequently, in many of the counties, 
the summits exceed 800 feet. Where not covered by " Drift," 
this Chalk area is frequently in open pasture, or " Downs," and 
considerably increases the acreage of permanent pasture in some 
counties, but not in all. Kent, though having a large area of 
Chalk represented in Geological maps, has comparatively little 
Down land — the Chalk being much covered with drift. Where 
the Chalk is bare, as at the north-east part of the county, the land 
lies fairly low, and is almost wholly arable. The Isle of Thanet 
equals the north-west of Norfolk in fertility, and resembles it in 
produce. The somewhat large percentage of pasture in Kent is 
partly due to the alluvial tract of Romney Marsh, and partly to 
the alluvial meadows bordering the Thames. Hants, for a Chalk 
county, has a remarkably small percentage of pasture. Here, as 
in Kent, the Chalk is mostly covered by drift, and appears only on 
the sides of the hills. Surrey has only a small proportion of 
Chalk, and of this only the steep face of the escarpment is Down 
land. Sussex, on the other hand, has a large area of bare Chalk, 
forming the well-known South Downs. Very large quantities of 
sheep are kept here, and most of the farmers have some arable 
land, which is generally light and available for roots. 
Concerning the low lying and more fully cultivated lands, there 
is not much that need be said here. Speaking generally, and dis- 
