440 Indications of the Fertility or Barrenness of Soils. 
most fertile of both arable and pasture is where other soils lie on 
the lias, or are mixed with it : therefore I think the quality of 
such soils can be but little understood by their colour, without 
an actual inspection of the spot to be judged of. The top-soil 
may belong to the oolite, and the subsoil to the lias. The colour 
of each varying so much, the palest and most plastic of this for- 
mation (the lias) we generally find the least productive as arable- 
land ; and, from its very wet nature, combined with its barren 
qualities, producing almost every sort of weed in great abundance, 
such as horse-mint, wild withy, wild tansey, &c. The poorer 
sorts of pasture are invariably found contiguous to the worst 
arable, and, from the same causes, produce weeds for the most 
part ; and, like other barren pasture-land before specified, pro- 
duce carnation-grass, wood-wax, gorse, moons, fire-leaves, and 
such like. It has ever a sour appearance, and for six months in 
the year the turf is nearly white, or, I perhaps ought to say, a 
nasty white, from the number of old stems left from the last 
summer. 
I shall mention one more feature of this country, and then I 
have done, that is, the meadows on the banks of the Severn, 
which, by judicious management, may be made some of the finest 
in the kingdom. These meadows, for the most part, consist of 
alluvial soil, and that, in many places, to a great depth; and 
many of those that are not composed of such soil may be flooded 
to great advantage at little expense. But at present this land 
lies in a very neglected state, and much of it, to appearance, is 
very poor and barren — and it is so in reality as now managed. 
Nature has made the land, together with the means of enriching 
it, but man neglects his part. I believe this soil to contain every 
ingredient necessary to form good and fertile land for any pur- 
pose, but the crop is cut and carried away every year, and the land 
left to take care of itself till the next season. I know of a few 
meadows, under good management, that are excellent, and why 
not others? Those that are well done look rich and healthy at 
all times, the herbage of the best kind, and the hay of the best 
quality. On the other hand, where neglected, the appearance is 
coarse and barren, the turf covered with moss and sedge-grass, 
and, when cut for hay, they get but little to carry away but this 
sedge-grass ; if any moss is cut with it the cattle >vill not eat it. 
All this difference for want of the Severn floods over it. 
Such are my observations, founded on facts derived and corro- 
borated by thirty years' experience. Before I conclude I will 
state my opinion how far your object is attainable, under the three 
heads on which you are desirous of information, namely, Colour, 
Consistence, or Vegetation. 
Colour. — As regards the colour of soils, I believe there is good 
