166 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. c February 22 , isss 
POULTRY AND PIGEON CHRONICLE. 
INDICATIONS OF FERTILITY OR BARRENNESS 
OF SOILS. 
{Continued from page 147.) 
We seldom find a whole field of 20 acres without variations 
in the subsoil as well as the surface soil, but especially so in 
the case of gravel, sand, or clay. Chalk, however, is more 
uniform in the subsoil, but varying also like the others on the 
surface. The same may be said of stone and marl soils, for fre¬ 
quently we find that these subsoils of stone or marl are very 
different, not in colour alone, but in their mixed composition, 
and contain gravel, sand, or limestone particles. It is well 
known, and we clearly see in arable land, that the composite 
veins of soil each exert a peculiar influence on crops. On 
pastures, although the influence may still exist, the grass does 
not allow us to discern those differences which are so clearly 
seen in farm crops. It is therefore on pasture land chiefly where 
the novice will find the most difficulty in ascertaining the soil 
and its variations. If, however, there is a growth of timber such 
as exists in various districts, there is no better indication of the 
hidden subsoil than the kinds of timber which flourish most, 
upon which matter, however, we shall have to enlarge in another 
place, for these more properly come under notice as illustrated 
indications of subsoils generally. 
On irrigated pastures we find fewer indications of either 
fertility or the reverse ; nor is it so essential, because the flood 
water brings with it deposits every year with but little variation 
if the water is judiciously laid on and carefully regulated, so as 
to feed the surface with the deposits from the highlands. Still 
there are some peculiar features connected even with irrigated 
meadows, for if well cared for the greenness and abundance of 
the produce may be equal, yet the best subsoil will yield the 
sweetest and best herbage, making frequently 20s. per ton 
difference in the value of the hay produced. As an illustration 
of this, there is no more productive land as to quantity of hay 
grown than that produced on peaty soil when judiciously flooded 
with water from the hills. Still the best and most valuable 
irrigated produce when converted into hay is obtained from a 
good sound brown or grey loam when watered by springs and 
floods derived from the foot or base of the chalk hills wherever 
they may be found. 
We cannot leave our subject without referring to the extensive 
tracts of meadow lands, especially in certain enclosed districts 
where clay land predominates, for they are mostly composed of 
a peat soil for a considerable depth, and buried in these soils we 
have often seen the bodies or trunks of large trees. Although 
these and meadows consisting of peat subsoil are frequently much 
abused and neglected by the farmers, and therefore in an un¬ 
drained state yield grass of an inferior quality either for dairy 
cows or young cattle, yet in our practice we have known these 
peaty meadows brought into excellent condition by a surface¬ 
dressing of clean fine gravel fresh out of the pit, or any earthy 
matters obtained from the borders and ditches of fields, for we 
find that after being completely drained these are extremely 
productive, especially in dry seasons. 
On the chalk hills in various counties we find a considerable 
extent of poor pastures called downs. Although a large extent of 
them was broken up and converted into arable during the last 
fifty years, those remaining are for the most part of inferior soil, 
which cannot always be properly characterised in consequence 
of the general practice of feeding sheep on them so continuously 
that very little produce is obtained. Store sheep in a poor and 
hungry condition not only eat the grass produce as close as that 
eaten by rabbits on a warren, but they also eat out the crowns 
and buds of certain plants and grasses, which under better treat¬ 
ment would become useful pastures. As at present fed the in¬ 
dications represent barrenness only, and superficial observers call 
them the poorest of grass land. But under superior management 
we have met with downs in several of the southern counties where 
the surface has been dressed with kainit, and the sheep kept from 
continuous grazing, and only allowed to feed when a good bite of 
grass has been grown, and even then only within a fold moved 
daily, and then left until another good bite of grass had sprung 
up, have greatly improved. Under this management, especially 
if the animals get such food as cotton cake extra, the pasture will 
improve yearly, and the difference of the pasture in the latter 
case may greatly deceive an inexperienced observer as to the 
nature of the soil in comparison with that so badly cared for 
under constant feeding and depreciation without manure, more 
particularly when the sheep carry off by custom all they get on 
the downs to a deadfold every night on the cultivated land. 
When, however, the grass is folded off and the sheep well fed, 
and leave their droppings both night and day, the turf may be 
considered as in an improved condition, although the nature of 
the soil may be the same in both systems of management. 
The consideration of indications noticeable on cultivated soils 
now merits attention, and it opens up a wide field for observation 
and remark. But colour, although not entirely so, is one of the 
chief indications of barrenness, yet it embraces most all shades 
that can be mentioned, some of which are also indications of 
fertile land, frequently on account of the aid which is derived 
from the subsoil. However, barren soils are generally of a brown 
or black, but also of fox colour, fawn, pale red, and whitish 
yellow ; a deep yellow is also a certain indication of barrenness. 
Soils having the following colours and appearances are barren : — 
Thin chalk soil which is nearly white, diluvial soils which con¬ 
tain a dead white gravel near the surface, moors and bogs which 
are nearly black to a considerable depth if not well drained, and 
the same kind of soil with a white sand under it, or with white 
gravel near the surface ; soils principally composed of white 
silvery sand, white clay, blue clay, yellow clay, and pink clay. 
Most extraordinary exceptions, however, occur in the case of 
yellow clay formations, for on our property part of three fields 
of a yellow clay of a precisely similar appearance throughout 
all the fields which were inferior generally, yet the best parts 
were, in fact, so superior in production that the crops had been 
most abundant for a period of sixty years without the application 
of any manure during the whole time ; but especially so of Wheat, 
Clover, and Beans, the two latter having produced respectively 
on certain occasions three sacks per acre of Broad Clover seed, 
and twenty-eight sacks of Beans per acre, the last-named being 
the produce of the harvest of the year 1812 as harvested by our 
predecessors on the farm. We have known something very like 
this vouched for in different parts of the kingdom. Such ex¬ 
ceptional results are not to be discovered except by the actual 
produce, there being no indications beyond that of ordinary fer¬ 
tility in the appearance of the soils. Nor would chemistry aid us 
in ascertaining the value of such land as the three fields alluded 
to, except the most productive portions had first been discovered 
through cropping. Much land in this country, therefore, cannot, 
as a rule, be said to be properly estimated except under cultiva¬ 
tion, and the variations of crops under ordinary circumstances. 
Gravelly soils are barren in cases where a red scum rests on 
the surface of the water in the ditches of a ferruginous appear¬ 
ance, and shining bright like the bloom on a Plum or Peach. 
Such is the appearance of water in or near to bogs. In this case, 
however, it occurs through the iron ore, traces of which are fre¬ 
quently found in the dark red sort of concrete gravel in the sub¬ 
soil, and this will vary much in some localities, for we know fields 
adjoining each other the surface of both being a kind friable 
gravel, but it is the subsoil gives the character or value to this soil. 
For when the gravel is loose at the bottom as well as on the 
surface it is moderately productive. When, however, the subsoil 
is almost as hard as iron as we have frequently noticed it, land is 
comparatively barren, and will 6how the ferruginous scum in the 
adjoining ditches, because the soil is completely impervious. Such 
land as this is doubled in value by steam-cultivating the subsoil, 
because it allows water to percolate freely, instead of being, as 
previously, too wet in the winter and too dry in the summer, there 
being little or no capillary action in the subsoil. 
(To be continued.) 
