Agriculhire of Berkshire. 
9 
Heath, wliicli is very suitable for any kind of crop except beans, 
and yields exceedingly well ; but when the subsoil is gravel 
instead of sand, the land is equally noted as being bad and un- 
profitable. The rent, including tithes, is from 2Gs. to 3G.9. per 
acre. White wlieat is grown, yielding about 4^ qrs. per acre ; 
Tartar oats, 10 qrs. ; barley, 5 qrs. ; beans, 4 qrs. Most of the 
land is drained in this district on the system to be described 
under that head. The size of the farms is from 100 to 400 acres. 
On the south of the Great Western Railway, between Theale 
and Newbury, in the parishes of Aldermaston, Brimpton, 
Crookam and Thatcham, there is a considerable deposit of 
gravel, in some cases sufficiently deep to obliterate the broad 
geological features of the soil, in which case its agricultural 
character becomes very similar to that of the valley of the Kennet 
below Newbury. 
Mavor includes the greater part of this division in the Forest 
district ; he speaks of the sand as almost unsusceptible of culti- 
vation, and of the strong clay-soil as much wanting draining, 
which alone he considers essential for its improvement and the 
full development of its productive powers ; he makes an excep- 
tion, however, in favour of His Majesty's farms in Windsor 
Great Park, where, he says, draining had been carried on with a 
royal spirit and with the greatest success. Much of this district 
at that period was unenclosed ; the improvement which has 
taken place in it since the date of that Report is greater than in 
any other part of the county. Windsor Forest at that time in- 
cluded the parishes of Old Windsor, New Windsor, Winkfield, 
Sunninghill, Binfield, Easthampstead, Sandhurst, Finchamp- 
stead, Barkham, Wokingham, Arborfield and Swallowfield, and 
parts of Clewer, Bray and Hurst, the unenclosed portions of 
which amounted to about 24,000 acres ; these were enclosed by 
Act of Parliament in 1813. The lands requiring it have been 
drained on the best and most approved plan, the sands much 
cultivated, and in many instances made to produce luxuriant 
crops of roots and corn. 
2nd Division. — The Chalk. — Tliis division occupies the 
whole centre of the county, and nearly one-half of its area. The 
sheep downs, which run up to the range of hills known as the 
Ridgeway or White-Horse Hill, form its northern boundary : 
this range of hills enters Berkshire, near Ashbury, and terminates 
at Streatley. The ground slopes gradually to the valley of the 
Kennet, where the Chalk forms a junction with the Plastic Clay ; 
extending eastward, the hills run almost parallel with the Great 
Western Railway to Reading, Twyford, Maidenhead, and thence 
nearly to Windsor. 
The nature of the soil in this division is extremely varied, 
