Lif/ht-Land Farming. 
93 
cernctl, and is covered with heather and coarse grass. Lower 
down is situated the light arable land of the granite formation, 
and farther down still we come to a better description of soil, 
which, altliough of a clayey and cold-l)()ttonied nature, having 
a better climate, produces, when drained and limed, licavy 
crops of oats, turnips, and grass. The whole of the granite soils 
are deficient in lime, and the first step towards their improve- 
ment, after being drained, is to apply this substance in a hot or 
caustic state. Where the climate is dry these soils are poor and 
hun<rrv, and require a great deal of manure to make them even 
ordinarily productive ; but in a damji atmosphere lying in grass 
for several years is the cheapest and most effective method of 
increasing their fertility. 
The soils on the whinstone or trap rocks are nearly all of a 
light description, with the exception of those derived from fels- 
pathic and porph^ritic traps. Probably the most continuous 
range of trap hills to be found in Britain is that which stretches 
from tlie mouth of the river Tay along its southern bank, and 
comprising the entire northern division of Fifeshire. This 
range is continued, with slight interruptions of overlying por- 
tions of the old red sandstone, through the south of Perthshire 
into Stirlingshire, Renfrew, and Lanark, as far as the estuary of 
the Clyde. The light land of this formation is of three kinds, 
viz., tliat from the greenstone, the basalt, and the amygdaloid : 
the soil of the former is of a thin, loose, rubbly nature ; the 
upper portion, or surface soil, is composed of a loose, brownish- 
coloured earth, abundantly intermixed with small stones, varying 
from a few grains weight to several pounds. The under soil is 
either a continuous bed of loose stones of a larger size than on 
the surface, or the upper soil rests upon the bare rock, which is 
full of fissures both vertically and horizontally, and consequently 
the soil is dry, and it is only in the lower parts of fields that 
water makes its appearance, generally in detached spouts or 
springs, which are easily drained. 
The light land on the amygdaloid, or "rotten rock," as it is locally 
termed, is composed of a rough granular, brownish or blackish 
sand, and the surface-soil is more free from stones than that of 
the greenstone. It occupies only a small extent, comparatively 
speaking, of the light land on the trap formation, and is generally 
so much mixed up with the greenstone and basaltic soils that its 
individual characteristics for the growth of corn or green crops 
can seldom be studied. When the rock comes to the surface it 
crumbles into a coarse gritty sand, which is sometimes used for 
mixing with lime to form mortar for building purposes, espe- 
cially where durability is more regarded than mere external 
appearance. It is also employed occasionally as a manure for 
