19G 
Farming of Oxfordshire. 
limestone, sandstone, and pliosphatic nodules. The composition 
of this gravel has formed the subject of much discussion and 
remark among geologists ; but, as forming an agricultural soil, it 
is of a light and friable character, though somewhat hot, and 
liable to burn. It bears good turnips and barley, and is well 
known as sheep land. Such is a large portion of Dorchester 
field and the neighbourhood. 
Beneath the greensand is a partial development of Portland 
oolite, especially at Hazeley, Cuddesden, and Garsington. It 
there produces a thin shelly and gritty stone, and the partings of 
the rock are fdled with siliceous and calcareous sand. This 
Portland or Aylesbury stone is found in isolated spots, rising- 
above the lower ground, which is mostly pasture, and marked by 
the development of the Kimmeridge clay beneath. The Port- 
land oolite forms but a small surface, and is covered in many 
places with the upper greensand, as at Shotover and Baldon. 
It is frequently accompanied by a hard sandstone, and in some 
parts by a white driftsand. 
The Kimmeridge clay which lies immediately under the Port- 
land stone can be seen at Cuddesden, and from thence to Milton, 
where it forms the meadows on the Thame stream, and also below 
the escarpment of the greensand to the north of Nuneham, The 
Kimmei'idge clay much resembles the gault in its composition, 
but the meadows are generally good ; indeed, where the Kim- 
meridge clay is cased with greensand, the grass land, as at 
Waterperry, is of a very superior and fertile description. 
The coral rag succeeds the Kimmeridge clay, and stretches 
from Littlemore and liHey to Holton, where it ceases, and its 
absence is marked by the Kimmeridge clay above and the Oxford 
clay beneath running insensibly into each otlier. The northern 
or more sandy portion of the coral rag is termed calcareous grit, 
and is accompanied in some places with a coarse sandstone 
which may be seen on Headington Hill ; but for farming pur- 
poses the coral rag, calcareous grit, and Portland stone produce 
one description of land. All the members are calcareous, and 
often form a thin hungry soil, though in many spf)ts it improves 
to a rich sandy loam. Most of this formation is in tillage, and 
when left in pasture produces jioor, benty herbage, or, if wet, 
nothing but carnation grass. The soil is soon affected by drought, 
but' when well farmed in moderately damp seasons produces 
large crops of grain and turnips, but is by no means good 
yielding land. The soil is easily tilled, and is well adapted to 
the consumption of green and root crops on the ground by sheep. 
The coral-rag group forms a low range of hills, and where quar- 
ried the rock docs not exceed 48 feet ; it consists in the upper 
part of oolitic freestcme, resting on hard shelly limestone. 
