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utter pruriency of noxious vegetation. Many 
soils, particularly in the mountainous regions of 
the world, are barren in consequence of their 
unfavourable geological position, or of their con- 
sisting of the debris of rocks unsuited to sustain 
vegetation. Clayey soils, which belong to the 
geognostic formations called London clay, plastic 
clay, wealden clay, Kimmeridge clay, Oxford 
clay, cornbrash and forest marble, and the coal 
measures, are generally barren ; clayey soils be- 
longing to the gault formation, the upper lias 
shale, the lower lias shale, and the lowmost lias 
rocks, are frequently barren; sandy and rocky 
soils belonging to the green sand formation, the 
coral rag, the new red sandstone, and the old red 
sandstone, are frequently barren ; and sandy and 
rocky soils belonging to the diluvial formation, 
the upper chalk, the Ashburnham beds, the upper 
oolite, the great oolite, the magnesian limestone, 
the millstone grit, the carboniferous limestone, 
the Silurian rocks, the Cambrian rocks, mica 
schist, gneiss, serpentine, granite, and quartz 
rock, are almost always barren. 
General surface appearances afford, to a prac- 
tised eye, decided indications of the comparative 
barrenness of a district; and yet are not always 
useful in indicating the character of a farm or of 
a field. A farmer is often able to estimate at a 
glance the general condition of as much of a 
country as lies within the range of vision, when 
he would be totally incapable of forming a toler- 
able estimate of one-half of it piece by piece. 
When he removes from the geological formation 
or the particular class of soils to which he has 
been accustomed, he is ever liable to be deceived 
by colours, consistences, and other characteristics 
of a field which appear to the eye to resemble 
those of his own farm, or of farms in his vicinity, 
but in real mineralogical character are very 
widely different. The most obvious indications 
of comparative infertility in a district are rocky 
mountains, moorlands, heaths, bogs, marshes, 
downs, wolds, woods of beech, larch or Scotch 
pine, stone fences, extensive deer-parks, vast 
sheep-walks, much stagnant water, abundance of 
rabbits, abundance of bramble-bushes, furze, and 
black thorns, many ant-hills, numerous lapwings, 
plovers, and curlews, large flocks of goldfinches 
in autumn, and the feeding of the wild goose on 
stubble. 
All bleak and very elevated districts are bar- 
ren. Few if any naturally fertile fields occur at 
a greater elevation than 1,500 feet above the 
level of the sea. A few of the grasses, indeed, 
have a stunted and lingering growth at greater 
elevations ; but most of these few are totally 
destitute of agricultural value. When old sward- 
land on an elevated situation is mown, its hay- 
crop is both late and light; and a late hay-crop, 
where spring-feeding is not practised, is always 
an indication of comparative barrenness in the 
soil. Hven on decidedly excellent arable land at 
an elevation of 1,000 or 1,200 feet, wheat, with 
BARREN SOILS. 
the common resources and management of the 
farmer, either will not ripen, or is of inferior 
quality. Yet modern agriculture has made great 
achievements in what is called ‘ high farming ;’ 
and, chiefly by means of draining, strong man- 
uring, and improved cultivation, has produced 
the same effects as if mountains were deprived of 
several hundred feet of their elevation, or were 
placed several degrees nearer the equator. 
The colours of barren land exhibit the utmost 
conceivable diversity, and are, in some instances, 
identical with those of fertile land. Yet certain 
colours, in the case of particular soils, are con- 
clusive indications of barrenness. Nearly white 
thin chalk soil,—chalk soil with pale white-col- 
oured flints,—diluvial soils with a dead white 
gravel near their surface,—dark-brown or nearly 
black moors and bogs,—moorlands with white 
gravel near their surface,—white silvery sands, 
—hblack sands, —pink-coloured sands, — yellow 
sands,—white clays,—blue clays,—yellow clays, 
—pink-coloured clays,—and gravelly lands whose 
ditches have a shining, ferruginous, or peach- 
coloured scum,—all these are, in every instance, 
barren. The colour of herbage varies so much 
with the season, the weather, the prevalent kinds 
of grasses, and other circumstances, that, except 
in a few very obvious cases, it cannot be regarded 
as an indicator of the soil. Herbage which, when 
growing or uncut, has the appearance of half- 
made hay, always consists of rough, coarse, un- 
palatable grasses, and indicates the land to be 
very bad pasture, and utterly useless for the 
plough. The herbage of barren land is scarcely 
ever green, either in spring, in summer, in au- 
tumn, or in winter, but generally appears brown 
or reddish-brown. 
The consistency of the surface-strata of land 
affords, in a large proportion of instances, an ex- 
cellent criterion to a practical farmer. Naked 
rock, pure sand, and mere clay of any depth, and 
coatings of mould or earth only 2, 3, or 4 inches 
in thickness upon any of these, are always barren. 
Such coatings, indeed, occasionally possess her- 
bage of a lively green colour, well fitted to deceive 
the unpractised eye; but when they are pierced 
with a spade, or examined at any ditch, pool, or 
other break, their almost worthless character is 
readily seen. Clay soil which cuts like soap, and 
afterwards dries like brick,—sand which is so 
light as to be liable to drifting by the wind,— 
clays or sands which have not a large intermix- 
ture of decomposed vegetable matter,—a clay 
and sand soil of such texture as to be agglutinated 
after a brisk rain, and to take a surface like 
cement,—a soil of alternate layers of sand and 
various coloured clay,—every kind of quicksand, 
—a deep surface stratum of sand and gravel,— 
and a soil of not more than 4 inches in depth, 
incumbent on sand, gravel, clay, flinty or chalk 
rock, or dry, rubbly, slaty, or compact rock,—all 
these soils are, in every instance, barren. 
A common practice in inspecting bad land for 
