57 
has borne for thirteen successive years, without any 
manure, (being only once limed) as much as eighteen loads 
of beans, eight quarters of barley, fifteen loads of wheat, 
and had this year upon it, though full of weeds, at least 
fifteen loads per acre of wheat. Perhaps the land of 
Bentley and Arksey is not inferior to any in Yorkshire. 
In a field near Shaftholme the soil is 3 feet 3 inches, 
resting on 7 feet clay ; underneath is 5 feet 9 inches 
sand, with clay again underneath. The great fertility 
of this land probably depends on several causes. The 
depth of its soil is very great. It is also perfectly dry 
without draining ; and has great power of absorption of 
moisture from the atmosphere, being 50 in 400 grains, 
which Sir Humphrey Davy calls " very absorbent." Its 
sand exists in minute division, being impalpable. But 
the proximate cause of fertility is its power to combine 
with a large proportion of ulmic acid. The soil even of 
the field which had been cropped thirteen years without 
the addition of any manure contains 8 per cent. At 
Stockbridge, the quantity of sand in a good field in- 
creases, being 36 per cent. The above analysis approaches 
nearest Sinclair's "rich alluvial," but is different from any 
of Thaer's. It would be useless to compare this soil 
with any of the same stratum, as it is impossible to 
improve its texture. The rent of this land only averages 
27s. per acre. 
The next inferior stratum, the bed of clay No. 1, 
emerges from beneath the Arksey soil, and has a very 
extensive range, forming the basis of the lands at 
Owston, Norton, Womersley, Feuwick, &c. stretching 
Eastwards towards Goole. This bed at Tilts is seven 
feet thick, forming there and at Owston a most inferior 
soil of nine inches, with a retentive subsoil. This clay 
however, thins to the North, and at Owston Park Gate 
