90 
Liijht-Land Farming. 
matter lias disappeared, and a light sandy soil is the result. So 
also on the plastic formation there are heavy soils and light soils 
in close juxtaposition, and often alternating with each other 
within very limited areas. To give a description of the geo- 
agricultural characteristics of all the different varieties of light 
land throughout the kingdom is, however, more within the pro- 
vince of the scientific than the practical writer, and is not, 
therefore, necessary to the practical objects which this article 
contemplates ; but, for the sake of rendering the subsequent 
remarks more intelligible, a short description of the princi]\al 
distinguishing features of the various kinds of light land will 
not be out of place. 
There are three kinds of light land which occupy a prominent 
and extensive position, viz., those situated on the upper clialk, 
the upper oolite, and the arenaceous deposits of the Hastings 
sand and of various other formations. The soil of the upper 
chalk is sometimes composed principally of carbonate of lime, 
loose angular flints, sand and vegetable matter, with very small 
quantities of phosphoric acid, sulphuric acid, and the alkaline 
salts of soda and potash— so small indeed as to be scarcely 
appreciable by the most delicate tests of the laboratory. Tiie 
surface soil is generally of a light brown colour, of a very loose 
texture, covered with flints, and easily ploughed and cultivated. 
The open nature of the subsoil keeps the surface dry by acting 
incessantly as a natural drain to t!ie rain which falls upon the 
surface. Chalk soils do not burn so soon as many sandy soils. 
There is, however, a peculiarity both in these soils and on those 
situated on some parts of the upper oolite, which is that, when 
they are reduced to a very fine tilth late in spring, for turnips 
for instance, each particle of earth seem.s to repel its neighbour, 
so that even a heavy shower of rain falling on the surface does not 
join them together, but falls through the soil as if it were a sieve. 
Silicious soils, on the contrary, become closed up by rain, and 
thus retain the moisture for a much longer period. The thin 
chalky soils, when once closed and saturated with moisture, are 
not so quickly burnt up by drought as those of a sandy nature, 
but when the drought has once fairly penetrated through them, 
then are they far more difficult to moisten than the latter, and 
hence derive less advantage from the first rains which succeed a 
long drought. This peculiarity has led farmers on their flinty 
chalks, and the thin oolite stonebrash, to gi\e as little plough- 
ing or cultivation as tliey can possibly do with in preparing 
tlieir land for turnips, and hence the reason why so much ol this 
kind of land is so full of couch grass and weeds. Most of the 
farms on the upper chalk are of great extent, and they are gene- 
rally elevated above the surrounding countrv ; they are seldom 
