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an admixture had been made either by the occupiers or 
landowners in the district he had spoken of, and whether 
any observations had been made upon the effect produced 
by such an artificial admixture, as had been made 
in other parts of the country. His Lordship said that 
he did not know whether in the line which Mr. Thorp 
had pursued, he had visited what was called the fen 
country, below Hatfield Cliace, but in a part of that 
country with which his Lordship was acquainted, there 
had been introduced within the last few years a practice 
of claying the soils which had greatly increased their 
fertility. The time was when the black soils produced 
no wheat, or if they did, it was exceedingly bad iu 
quality ; but when the black soil was clayed, where the 
subsoil happened to be clay, it was greatly improved. 
Within the last ten or fifteen years the practice of 
digging out the clay and throwing it upon the surface 
had been much adopted, and the consequence had been 
a great improvement of those soils, rendering them 
cajjable of bearing to a very considerable extent. 
Sir Francis L. Wood said that Mr. Banks of 
Wothersome had done so to a considerable extent. 
Mr. Walker Smith said he was acquainted with some 
gentlemen who had mixed clay with other soils to a 
considerable extent, but whether the advantage derived 
arose simply from the admixture or from the operation 
of the atmosphere was a point to be determined. If by 
such an admixture they could constitute a soil that would 
preserve an equality of temperature, and would not give 
out, during the night, the heat it had acquired during the 
day, he apprehended that some improvement might be 
effected. 
