18 
On the Farming of Essex. 
their inequalities is liable to be engulfed in them, as the surface, 
being covered with the accumulated barley- straw, exhibits all 
smooth to the eye; and it is only by the rising of the water and 
sinking of the straw that he is awakened to the situation he is 
placed in. This, however, has been remedied by the more spirited 
occupiers, but still prevails to an extent deserving their attention, 
as, upon a moderate estimate, one-fourth of the most valuable 
properties of the manure is thus annually lost. 
The farm-buildings are commonly timber-built, and thatched. 
The external walls are either common weather board cut from 
elm timber, or clay daubing upon lath — the clay being suited to 
this kind of work and very durable, and when whitened over with 
lime having a neat appearance ; the white gable-ends of the 
buildings and houses shining in the sun's rays give vigour and 
relief to the landscape. 
Second or Mixed Soil District. 
I shall now proceed to the second or eastern division, com- 
prising all that portion described as consisting of gravel, with beds 
of loam, chalky clay, and alluvial and diluvial strata, in successive 
order or abruptly displaced. 
I shall commence with the land lying upon the banks of the 
Chelmer, which, to an extent of about 2 miles northward and 
southward, may be taken as a tolerable specimen of the other 
portion lying upon the Stour and Colne, and extending from Col- 
chester to Harwich. 
The tender loam or brick earth subsoil, lying nearest the river, 
is in some instances uncommonly fine, and well adapted for the 
growth of almost every description of vegetable and grain crops. 
The higher portions of Danbury, Raddow, Tiplree, &c., con- 
stitute a division remarkable for its abrupt varieties of subsoil, 
consisting of strong clay, gravel, sand, loam, and beds of pebbles 
lying alternately in successive strata in the same field. 
This portion of the county is remarkable for its fine timber, 
the hedgerows abounding with elm, oak, ash, and maple ; but 
from the fields being small they cause incredible damage to the 
crops by their roots extracting the nutriment, and shading them 
from the sun, compensating only by the beauty afforded to the land- 
scape by the multiplicity of tints and variety of foliage displayed. 
The beauty of the country, as viewed from these elevated points, 
is unsurpassed by any other in the kingdom ; and the salubrity of 
the air contradicts the opinion that Essex is an unhealthy county, 
portions of it alone having been liable to that accusation, and 
those portions being now rendered healthy by the drainage that 
has been effected, as well as by the abundance of fresh spring- 
water which has been procured from artesian wells. 
