IxMPROVEMENT OF AGRICULTURAL HORSES. 
691 
tenacity, and by a surface variously undulated ; and further, 
if necessary, what modifications of existing varieties may be 
desirable, and how they may be most easily produced. 
This method of treatment involves the admission of the 
proposition, that the kind of agricultural horse best adapted 
to a particular locality can only be determined by reference 
to the agricultural peculiarities of that country in which the 
animal is destined to exist. Without pretending absolutely 
to isolate the western counties by' a strict boundary-line, or 
to enter upon a detailed geological description,—or even to 
trespass upon the province of the agriculturist to any extent, 
we may be permitted to advance some general statements 
with reference to the broad leading characteristics of the 
localities with which we are immediately concerned. 
Taking the principal parts of the West of England, we 
find some of the most important geological formations, com¬ 
prising large masses of the old and new red sandstones, 
oolites, lias, Kimmeridge and Oxford clays, in addition to 
the chalks, affording fields for a mixed agriculture. 
In Wiltshire are chalks, the upper oolite, and new red 
sandstone. 
In Gloucestershire a large portion of the vale is upon the 
lias, some of it of the most unmitigated character; upon the 
higher grounds the oolites prevail; and below the lias the 
new red sandstone. 
The soils of Dorsetshire include the chalks, with green¬ 
sand, Kimmeridge clay, oolites, and lias. 
Devonshire includes two geological groups of very dissi¬ 
milar characters and agricultural capabilities. South Devon 
lies partly upon the new red sandstone, affording fine rich 
pastures. North Devon, Cornwall, and a part of South 
Devon, excluding the mineral deposits in the mining districts 
with which we have no particular concern, are upon the 
older coal-measure sandstone and slates of the Devonian age, 
affording barren hills on the one hand, and more fertile val¬ 
leys with a soil formed of the debris of the higher rocks im¬ 
proved by cultivative processes. 
In Somersetshire we come again upon a small portion of 
old red sandstone, but the characteristic formation is the new 
red with oolites and lias. Fine pasture-lands are found on 
the sandstone, and inferior pastures on the lias clays. In 
addition we have arable soils of a medium and tenacious 
nature. The more picturesque parts of the country are 
formed by upheavals of mountain limestone. 
Herefordshire and Monuioiithshire also furnish us with 
