564 Indications of Fertility or Barrenness of Soils. 
have a better face upon them than the original nature of the soil 
will warrant. 
Soils possessing the consistency described in the following con- 
densed remarks, are always barren. It may be as well to observe 
that all soils are considered to be thin if less than 4 or 5 inches 
deep from the surface to the rock, clay, or subsoil : — 
Dry, rubbly, slaty, or compact rock, under a thin surface soil. 
Flinty or chalk rock under ditto. 
Clay ditto ditto. 
Sand, particularly black sand ditto. 
Gravel ditto. 
Clay, giavel, or sand, under a thin peaty surface. 
Sand and gravel composing nearly the whole of the surface-soil, as well as the 
subsoil. 
Clay ditto ditto. 
Rock and stone ditto ditto. 
Clay soil which cuts like soap, and afterwards dries like a brick. 
Sand wliich is light and liable to drift with the vpind. 
Clay soil which is not mixed witli a large quantity of vegetable matter in a state of 
decomposition. 
Sandy soils ditto ditto ditto. 
A mixture of sand and clay, in such proportions as to run together after a brisk rain, 
and set on the surface like cement. 
Sand and clay, not mechanically mixed, but found in alternate layers, and the clay 
of various colours. 
Quicksands wherever found. They are frequently found in the last-mentioned soils, 
composed of alternate bands of clay and sand. 
The Cotswold Hills, in Gloucestershire, and the whole western 
summit of the continuation of the same hills, extending southward 
from Charlton Hill near Cheltenham, to near Sherborne in 
Dorsetshire, and northward to near Whitby in Yorkshire, and a 
large portion of North and South Wales, are familiar examples 
of the first-mentioned kind of soil, which is well known to be 
naturally barren. 
The summit of the Chalk Hills, which extend from the southern 
coast of Dorsetshire to Flamborough Head, in the East Riding 
of Yorkshire, is a familiar example of the second kind of soil 
mentioned in the foregoing list, which is well known to be 
naturally barren. 
The Coal-Measures are familiar examples of the third kind of 
soil, as well as some parts of the Lias, Oxford, Gault, and Weald 
Clays. The Coal-Measures are well known to form the most 
sterile districts in the kingdom. And examples of the fourth 
kind of soil mentioned are to be found profusely scattered over 
Norfolk, Yorkshire, Hampshire, and other counties. 
Some portions of these districts, by good management, change 
their natural appearance and productive quality; but, if that 
superior management which gradually causes such change were 
to be withdrawn for a time, those lands so cultivated would fall 
back to their primitive state of barrenness, and would produce but 
very short and scanty herbage and very inferior crops of grain. 
