562 Indications of Fertility or Barrenness of Soils. 
same in spring, summer, and autumn. Land that is fertile pos- 
sesses a much greater power to withstand the effects of a change 
in temperature and continued drought than barren soil, and Avill 
often retain a nice, fresh, green colour, when lands that are bar- 
ren will appear brown and scorched, or burnt up. 
In winter the colour will appear more of a whited-brown than 
that of barren land, and on examination it will be found that the 
stems of the best grasses are visible, appearing like very fine 
barley-stubble which has been mown close, but not so conspi- 
cuous, being mixed with other grasses not furnished with strong 
stems. The stems give to the surface a whitish appearance in 
winter. 
From elevated spots I have often looked over a district in the 
vale, and have remarked that lands which had been manured 
were of a darker green colour than those adjoining of a similar 
quality which had not been so manured ; and, on a nearer in- 
spection, I have found the dark green-coloured herbage to be 
more luxuriant in growth, the grasses thicker and taller, and the 
leaves broader, and the produce altogether more forward and pro- 
mising than that of the adjoining lands. This would lead us to 
conclude that a dark green-coloured herbage is an indication of 
fertility. 
The colour of the soil itself in pasture-lands is seldom very 
particularly observed, but the soil of all fertile pasture is invari- 
ably dark for its kind : even the chalk-marl is a darkish grey 
colour, and sometimes nearly black at the surface when a thin 
turf is removed. Garden- mould is invariably dark brown in 
districts where the soil in the fields is of a light brown, or a fox, 
or fawn colour. This dark colour is derived from the decomposed 
vegetable and animal matter with which it becomes mixed after a 
few years' cultivation. 
All top-soils that I have seen, except some in the coal -districts 
and bogs, are darker at or near the surface than at a few inches 
beneath. The decomposed animal and vegetable substances be- 
come, in some degree, the colouring matter of soils, and where 
this colouring matter is most abundant the soils will be dark ; 
and, the same substances being also the fertilizers of soil, it would 
appear that there is a connexion between fertility and the dark 
colour of the soil sufhciently apj)arent to induce us to suppose 
that dark soils are invariably fertile soils. It is believed they are 
so with the exception of those of a peaty and boggy nature, and 
that of black sand, which is of very limited extent. 
Fertile arable lands have various shades of colour, but all of 
them are of a much darker shade than lands in the same district 
which are barren. 
