Agricultare of Berkshire. 
13 
to a greater extent. This locality is celebrated for the very pro- 
ductive orchards with which it abounds ; more particularly in the 
parishes of North and South Moreton, East and West Hag- 
bourne, Blewbury, Upton, Harwell, and East and West Hendred, 
The apples, pears, damsons, and more particularly the cherries, 
(although a very uncertain crop), are very remunerative to the 
occupier, who either sends them by rail to London at the whole- 
sale price, or retails them out in the neighbourhood. 
The annual value of this land varies from 35s. to 50s. per 
acre, including tithes. 
As we approach the Thames we find gravels in some cases 
so mixed with the soil as to give it the character of a rich gravelly 
loam, and in others of such a depth as to bring it under the 
denomination of a sharp gravel. This description applies to 
portions of the parishes of Wallingford, Whittenham, Sutton, 
Drayton, Abingdon, and Radley. This is the most forward dis- 
trict in the county, and it not unfrequently happens that the 
wheat harvest is completed here before the corn is fit for the 
sickle on the south-western side. 
As we quit the Gault and proceed northward, we meet with 
a narrow strip of the Lower Greensand. I will not venture 
to assign an agricultural character to it, as it is not sufficiently 
defined, and is to a certain extent replaced by the gault. Be- 
yond it we find the Kimmeridge Clay, which, between High- 
worth, Faringdon, and Abingdon, forms a very irregular line 
with the Coral-rag which overlies the Oxford Clay, and extends 
to the river Isis or Thames, the northern boundary of the 
county. In traversing the space described as coral-rag till 
we reach the Oxford clay, we meet with various deposits of 
gravel and sand, the Kimmeridge clay occasionally breaking out : 
the soil is so diversified that a full description of it would fill 
a larger space than is desiiable here. 
The centre of this division is occupied by a considerable 
breadth of grass-land which I shall have occasion to refer to 
elsewhere. In the neighbourhood of Faringdon the surface- 
soil, viewed as farming land, is wonderfully varied ; in one field 
may be seen burning gravel, limestone rock, and sand ; in 
another stonebrash, with streaks of peaty vegetable mould and 
clay. Again, at Longworth, we find sand, loam, stonebrash, and 
clay, whilst in other parts there is much calcareous sand of 
light tillage. The whole district produces very excellent crops 
of roots and corn; its value, including tithes, is from 30s. to 35s. 
per acre. The soil being so various, the course of cropping is very 
irregular. 
The benefit that has resulted to agriculture from the establish- 
ment of the Royal Agricultural Society is universally acknow- 
