Indications of Fertility or Barrenness of Soils. 
either in spring, summer, or winter. All pasture-land that pro- 
duces rough, coarse, unpalatable grass, which stock will not touch 
unless compelled by hunger, has the appearance of hay half 
made, although the grass is not cut ; and all pasture-lands having 
this appearance, that is, having the colour of half-made hay, must 
be accounted bari'en. 
The soil of barren land is exceedingly various in colour, em- 
bracing almost all shades that can be mentioned, some of which 
are also indications of fertile land. Barren soils are generally of 
a lightish brown, fox, fawn, pale red, and whitish yellow colour ; 
a deep yellow is a certain indication of barrenness. 
Soils having the following colours and appearances are bar- 
ren : — 
Thin chalk soil which is nearly white. 
Chalk soil where the flints are of a pale white colour. 
Diluvial soils which contain a dead white gravel near the surface. 
Moors and bogs which are nearly black, or of a dark brown 
colour, to a considerable depth ; and the same kind of soil with 
a white soil under it, or with white gravel near the surface. 
Soils principally composed of white silvery sand, black sand, 
pink sand, yellow sand, white clay, blue clay, yellow clay, and 
pink clay. 
Gravelly soils are barren where a scum rests on the surface of 
the water in the ditches of a ferruginous appearance, and shining 
bright, like the bloom on a plum or a peach. The scum resting 
on the surface shows that the waier is stagnant, or has but a very 
slight draught, which may have more to do with the barrenness 
of the soil than the colour of the scum on the surface. The 
cause is not an inquiry of ours, but, however simple and uncon- 
nected with the colour of the soil this may appear, I have no 
doubt that the scum of a ditch exhibiting this colour is a sure 
indication of the original barrenness of the adjoining lands. Such 
is the appearance of the watei', generally, in or near to bogs. 
A familiar example of a district having this appeai'ance in the 
ditches may be witnessed at or near Knapton, called " Knapton 
over Car," in the vale of the Derwent, about 8 or 9 miles east 
of Malton, Yorkshire. Other localities might be enumerated, 
but this is named on account of its being rather extensive. 
Indications of Fertility. 
The colour of the surface which arises from the grasses and 
plants is not to be relied on as an indication of fertility or bar- 
renness. It will vary very much with the alteiations of the 
weather, and the changes of temperature which generally accom- 
pany such alterations. It will also vary with the time of the 
year when the land is seen ; the colour of the grass is not the 
