432 Indications of the Fertility or Barrenness of Soils. 
mowing-time the land actually looks white with moons ; the car- 
nation-grass is visible at all seasons of the year. In draining 
this land we found the top-soil to be of the same colour on the 
higher and lower parts: but the subsoil varied much; on the 
higher parts it was almost pure clay, with a few flints and pebbles ; 
while, on the lower parts, the clay is much paler, with less of flints 
and pebbles, and mixed with a vein of a light-coloured mortary 
grit. 
I shall next describe a farm of 500 acres, also occupied by my 
father, in the neighbourhood of Witney, in Oxfordshire, and 
partly on the oolite formation. On this estate there is limestone 
brash, a hollow moory land, a light gravel, a moory gravel, a 
strong gravel, a mortary loam, and a strong clay ; the limestone 
brash is a light red loamy top-soil on the limestone. In some 
places the loam is a yard in depth ; where this occurs the crops 
are much better than where the stone is near. In places on this 
kind of soil there are veins of clay in the subsoil, which cannot be 
detected at any time except when the land is very wet, and then 
you can hardly walk across those places for a few days; but we 
never found much difference in the crops, except where the clay 
lasted some distance. When on such places the turnips were small, 
and the corn short and very fine in the straw, we never discovered 
any variation in the colour of the topsoil. 
On such soils as these a chemist may analyze either of these 
several veins of land, and yet not arrive at a correct conclusion 
as to its comparative barrenness or fertility. If the sample sent 
him happened to be taken from the part of the field where the 
subsoil is loam as well as the top, he would pronounce it a fertile 
and rich soil ; when, on the contrary, if the sample were taken 
where the subsoil is clay, he would say the field was bad. In 
either of these cases he would be wrong as respects the whole ; 
but if the soils analyzed were taken from the stony part of the 
field, the result would be much nearer the average quality of the 
land ; for take any practical surveyor or farmer over this land, he 
would at once pronounce it a pretty turnip and barley soil of 
average quality, and such is the real character of this part of the 
farm. 
Close to this brashy land lies the hollow moory field. It is a 
black hollow top-soil on a pale soapy clay; and in some places 
the subsoil is a mortary gravel, very weak in its nature, and of 
much the same colour as the clay. On entering this field, the 
practical man would pronounce it bad, and not worth cultivating. 
He would jujint to the white places where the subsoil peeps 
through the top, also to the wild tansy and rushes, as indications 
of poverty and stagnant water. He would say, " Look at this 
top-soil ; see how light it is ; it is almost ready to fly with the 
