Expenences of a Scotsman on the Essex Clays. 313 
nitrate of soda, makes me feel easy in miud regarding this. 
The majority of in-comers, however, have had their choice in this 
matter, but I have not heard of any who have taken a long 
lease. 
It is a gratifying feature of this Northern irruption that no 
English farmer has lost a home to make way for the in-comers, 
so far as I am aware. The farms were either quite unoccupied, 
worked by the landlord, or the old tenant was leaving in any 
case, and if the North-countryman had not arrived there would 
have been no tenant at all. As to the reasons why the latter 
succeeds where the former failed (or apparently does so — for ten 
years is perhaps too short a time in which to judge of the 
success of a movement), I have my own opinion, but it is 
outside the scope of this paper to enter on this question. 
The title of this article is to some extent misleading regard- 
ing the nature of the soil in Essex. A very large extent is, of 
course, a stiff clay soil, formed from the weathering of the 
London clay proper ; but there is quite as much of the surface 
of the county occupied by what is known to geologists as Bag- 
shot sands and gravels, boulder clay, glacial drift, &c. In 
fact, a look at the one-inch scale Geological Survej^ map shows 
that there is comparatively little of the brown colouring indi- 
cating the clay formation. It occurs chiefly in the hollows and 
valleys, while the tops of the elevations and knolls are occupied 
more or less with soil full of flint gravel, and of quite a different 
nature from the clay. For one thing, it is not so fertile naturall}' 
as the clay, and in some places is actually barren, forming the 
various " heaths " and forest-lands (such as Epping Forest) of 
the county. Where the lighter soils of the boulder clay and 
glacial drift prevail, however, we have a very fertile district, 
such as the famous Roothings of Essex. 
Another practical difference between the heavy and the 
lighter soils is shown in tlie manuring. Coming from a district 
where whole or dissolved bones were almost the only artificial 
manure used (excepting, of course, nitrate of soda), we preferred to 
stick to them, but found they had not the slightest effect. I have 
always been in the habit, during the last few years, of leaving a 
ridge unmanured right down a field when applying a dressing 
of artificials, and of giving the next ridge a double dose. By 
this means one can tell pretty accurately the effect of an appli- 
cation of any dressing, without going to all the trouble of 
measuring and calculating, as is the case with elaborate experi- 
ments. I thus found that on our clay phosphatic manures 
have no direct appreciable effect. On the other hand, all 
nitrogenous manures, such as guano — with, of course, nitrate of 
VOL. u. T. s. — 6 y 
