198 Farming of Oxfordshire, 
Just under tlie surface is often found a tliin bed of stony rubble, 
and then comes 6 or 8 feet of clay resting on a limestone rock. 
The surface soil, which varies in depth from 3 inches to a foot, 
is generally composed of fragments of the rock well reduced, and 
is a dry, stony, friable loam, with naturally little vegetable 
matter. The sides of the hills are wet from clay partings in the 
rocks, and when these partings of clay become extensive and 
form beds, they produce a wet, tenacious, calcareous soil. Some 
good stonebrash land is found in the neighbourhood of Chipping 
Norton and Burford, but about the Bartons, the Enstones, the 
Astons, and Sandford the soil varies from a cold and weak sand 
to a stiff ungrateful clay. The chief part of the stonebrash is in 
arable cultivation, and is well adapted for the four-field or 
Norfolk system of farming ; it mostly carries sheep well, and 
will produce good crops of barley, wheat, turnips, and sainfoin. 
The stonebrash is best on the flat table-land, and, where the rock 
is tolerably near the surface, it is very kind for barley, turnips, 
and sheep. The soil is thin, or wet and poor on the declivities. 
The formation reaches from the north side of Bicester to the 
south of Deddington ; its greatest width is estimated at 12 miles, 
and its extent at 1 G4,000 acres. 
It is a matter of great difficulty to define nicely the geology of 
the northern extremity of the county. About Chipping Norton 
the tops or ridges of the hills consist of stonebrash or sand, 
resting on limestone or sandstone, and the slopes are generally 
clay, and in many cases require draining. The valleys are lias 
clay, with here and there patches of useful red land. Passing in 
a north-easterly direction towards Great Tew, the red land, which 
indicates the presence of the inferior oolite, occupies a large 
space of that part of the county, and extends to Bloxham, Adder- 
bury, and north of Banbury. The inferior oolite forms a range 
of rounded hills overhioking the table-land of the great oolite, 
and the valleys of the lias. This formation, we are told, is com- 
posed of " calcareous, siliceous, micaceous, and ferruginous sub- 
stances." Sometimes the rock is within a few inches of the 
surface, but mostly there is a good depth of soil, which varies 
from red sand to a strong loam. This is, no doubt, some of the 
best land in Oxfordshire; it is called by Arthur Young "the 
glory of the county." It is deep, sound, and friable, yet capable 
of tenacity. The reddest land contains most sand, is loose, open, 
and porous; and, as at Alkerton, Horley Hanwell, and Drayton, 
is well adapted for the growth of barley and turnips. But in 
parts of Hook Norton, Tadmarton, Sibford, and Epwell the in- 
lerior oolite desrenerates into a blowing sand. W hen the red soil 
is mixed with calcareous earth it is sufficiently retentive to grow 
any crop, and is extremely fertile. Excellent land is found in 
