Indications of the Fertility or Barrenness of Soils. 
437 
through many times ; indeed I have been over several farms which 
lie within this district. It extends from Cricklade, in Wiltshire, 
to Bampton, in Oxfordshire, about 14 miles in length, and varies 
from 1 to 4 miles in breadth, and lies on the left hand as we 
descend the banks of the Isis, to which it is contiguous the whole 
distance above-named. Here is tjuite a field for any chemist — 
aye, even for a natural philosopher of the best school — to define 
the geological properties of this district of country. It contains 
almost every description of soil ; also good and bad of each sort ; 
pasture as well as arable ; irrigated meadows, natural as well as 
artificial. I think some of the former which are flooded by the 
Isis are as good as possible for any purpose, or for any kind oi 
stock. Any person at all acquainted with land would at first sight 
pronounce these meadows to be good : through the winter it always 
wears a good face; its appearance is rich and good. If you ex- 
amine the herbage, you will find much rye-grass and clover, with 
all the best sorts of bents, and a total absence of those bitter, noxious 
weeds which are found on poor pasture-soils — such as moons, car- 
nation-grass, gorse (some people call it cammock), fire-leaves, 
hard-heads, and many others. The hay from these rich meadows, 
if made in good season, will stick to the fingers like good hops. 
The soils of these meadows are not all alike : some are a loamy 
gravel ; others have much clay in the composition ; while in other 
places they appear to consist entirely of alluvium left by the Isis. 
As respects the fertility of these meadows, much depends on the 
nature of the soil that is flooded by the same water ; or whether 
the water runs right over it; or what is called flooding backwards 
— that is, the water runs or stands back on the land, and lies in a 
stagnant stale till the flood subsides. In this latter case it is ever 
considered that the water does harm : when, on the other hand, 
the water, by running over the very same description of soil, does 
a vast deal of good ; thereby often making in the very same mea- 
dow good land and bad land, merely by the action of the water ; 
and yet to the chemist the super and sub soils of each shall appear 
the same. I will ask. How is he to decide ? The experienced 
farmer is much more likely to point out the relative fertility of 
such soils : he would call attention to the unkind state in which 
the flood had left the land, drowned by the back-water, covered 
with scum and small pieces of vegetable matter, driven there by 
the wind ; the herbage looks starved, and not of the best kind ; 
and if this part should lie a little flat, as is often the case, it will 
be found full of sedge-grass and other water plants. 
As the beds, or rather veins of gravel, run through the whole 
of this length of country, I have observed that the best uplan<l 
pasture has a great portion of dark loamy earth mixed with the 
gravel, and in some places clay also ; but where the clay predo- 
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