Lessons on Soil

If we talk to a farmer or a gardener about soils he will say that there are several kinds of soil; clay soils, gravel soils, peat soils, chalk soils, and so on, and we may discover this for ourselves if we make some rambles in the country and take careful notice of the ground about us, particularly if we can leave the road and walk on the footpaths across the fields. When we find the ground very hard in dry weather and very sticky in wet weather we may be sure we are on a clay soil, and may expect to find brick yards or tile works somewhere near, where the clay is used. If the soil is loose, drying quickly after rain, and if it can be scattered about by the hand like sand on the sea shore, we know we are on a sandy soil and can look for pits where builder's sand is dug. But it may very likely happen that the soil is something in between, and that neither sand pits nor {2}clay pits can be found; if we ask what sort of soil this is we are told it is a loam.