356 
SOILS AND AGRICULTURE OF NORFOLK. 
areas, so geological maps mean little to the farmer, as the 
same holding may contain many different types of what is 
geologically the same rock giving rise to all kinds of soil. 
Local conditions also alter the surface characters very much. 
It is quite common to find in gravelly or sandy soils that 
about a foot below the surface the grains are cemented, 
together with iron, making a hard rock — the “ pan ” of 
farmers— which holds up the surface water, producing wet 
patches which may lead to peaty areas being formed. 
Woodward, in his Memoirs on the North-Norfolk District, 
says : — “ Much of the soil over the central and western parts 
is of a changable and mixed character from the fact that 
the gravel and sand which originally extended over a con- 
siderable part of it have left indications of their former 
presence in the soil. Probably the heaviest land is that 
south and east of Foulsham. At Colkirk and Oxwick there 
is good loamy land, also heavy at Guestwick and Hindol- 
vestone.” 
Again, “ The glacial drift of this area comprises almost 
every kind of sedimentary or detrital formation from chalk, 
mud, marl, clay, and loam, to sand, gravel, and boulder 
gravel. The map distinguishes as far as possible the marly 
and loamy beds from the sands and gravels — at least this is 
a lithological division, but it is difficult to be consistently 
accurate even in this respect, for the beds give evidence of 
great disturbance or contortion, and also of frequent and 
abrupt changes in lithological character. . . . It is not 
possible to separate the gravel from the sand on the map, 
and even the boundary between the brick earth and the marl 
or boulder clay is only approximate.” 
The “boulder clay” of H.M. Survey is of little use as a 
guide to the agriculturist in indicating any particular type of 
soil, varying as it does from sandy or marly beds in the 
north to heavy chalky clays in the south, with every possible 
combination of gravels and sands in local patches. All the 
