portion of it. The soil is partly alluvial, partly diluvial, and the estate every where shows great fertility and capability of improvement, especially owing to its position with regard to the adjacent greenstone hills, from which it derives the most valuable fertilising ingredients, and to the river Meander, by which the greatest portion of the property may be irrigated. The field whence the soil is taken represents the character of a great portion of the estate. It is thought by the farmer to be of the highest productive power, yielding forty bushels per acre in return for 1 of wheat sown. It was never irrigated, fallowed, or manured; neither has it been under regular rotation. Between five crops of wheat, two only, of oats, intervened. Its subsoil is a red clay: its specific gravity 1.79; its colour a very deep brown; its substance tolerably fine, aggregating easily, and being rather gritty to the touch. It is porous, but retentive of water; and to be cultivated requires a strong team, both in dry and wet weather.

SOIL No. 28.

Belongs likewise to Quamby's farm. In its appearance it differs from the preceding soil only in being of a lighter brown colour. In the character, however, given of it by the farmer, the difference is material; it being of the lowest productive power, and very much subjected to frost. It is called sour, cold, and moist; but no means of improving it have been tried: the fact of its never having returned a good crop has caused it to be abandoned. Its specific gravity is 2.54; its colour brown; its texture is of moderate fineness; it aggregates easily when wet, and becomes stiff; feels gritty, and is permeable, but does not drain the water off easily. It is rather heavy to work when moist.

As illustrating the effects of denudation, the district of Bothwell was particularly pointed out, exhibiting, as it does, in many instances, soils apparently

most fertile, but which, through denudation and renovation of the surface, whereby the protoxide of iron in which they abound has been exposed to continual conversion into peroxide, produce no vegetation. The farm of Logan, the property of Mr. A. M'Dowell, to which the Soil No. 29. refers, is situated in this district. The soil was taken from a field representing the average character of the best soils under cultivation in the district; those, namely, which are the least subjected to the effects of denudation, either from the small quantity of iron they contain, or from the slight degree of inclination in their surface. This soil produces twenty bushels of wheat for 1 of seed, and is alternated with English grasses and turnips, which are fed off by sheep hurdled on the field: it is not irrigated, nor manured. Its specific gravity is 2.61; its colour, a dark greyish brown; its particles are fine, and rather loose and gritty. It is porous, and which causes it to suffer from drought and frost.

SOIL No. 30.

This soil is from the above farm of Logan, but it represents the soils of the least productive power in the district. Specific gravity 2.08; colour, a light grey; particles fine, and of moderate cohesion, becoming, in drought, an impalpable powder, and during the rainy season somewhat muddy. It feels gritty to the touch, and has been neither manured nor fallowed. Every crop has failed.

The farm from which the above soil was taken is called Glen-Leith, and is the property of D. Jamieson, Esq. From its favourable position on the river Plenty, and from the improvements which have taken place on it already, it deserves to be mentioned as one of the best farms in the Derwent valley. The soil was taken from a field which had been under

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cultivation about eighteen years. The first five crops of wheat produced, from a bushel and a half of seed, 35 to 40 bushels per acre. It was then laid down in grasses, open both to sheep and cattle, for six years; and, when broken up again, the return of wheat was not more than from 25 to 30 bushels. It has since twice grown turnips, which have been fed off with sheep; but it never returned a crop equal to the first five. Its specific gravity is 1.99; its colour, a fine dark brown. Its particles are tolerably fine, readily adhere, and are gritty to the touch. It is permeable, retains the water, and when moist is difficult to cultivate.

Belongs to the same farm as the preceding soil. It was taken from a field first broken up fourteen