242
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
on the Boulder Clay area, whilst even then the London Clay
district to the south-east was dropping back to pasture land.
Henceforward the agricultural history of the south-eastern
London Clay district is the history of all marginal land—rapidly
spreading arable farming with good prices, the fields tumbling
back to indifferent pasture land with falling prices. Thus in
1911, well above 40 per cent was grassland, whilst in 1866 over
80 per cent was in corn. These economic cycles are, of course,
the effect of factors operating beyond the Essex shore, e.g. the
Napoleonic campaigns and the opening up of the American
Prairie Provinces. It is clear that in times of scarcity it will be
worth while cultivating the three-horse land, but in times of
plenty the heavy London Clay is too tough and is too heavy
going for the farmer to plough with any hope of seeing a return
on his expenditure.
The last war saw the cycle repeated when arable farming
penetrated into the London Clay area and again fell back after
the break in prices in 1921. It is particularly interesting to see
the same cycle in the process of revolution and to notice how
Essex has improved its agriculture by using its natural resources.
Essex is fortunate in having the area of heavy London clay
almost ringed by chalk except, of course, on the seaward side.
The rapid expansion of corn production on the heavy clay land
in the early years of the last century resulted in a big liming
and chalking programme, and it is today possible to see the
derelict "dells" from which the chalk and marl, used to lighten
the heavy clay area, were dug. The same expansion in liming
is seen today as a consequence of the increased cultivation of
the London Clay during the last two or three years, although, of
course, the methods of procuring lime and chalk are more
mechanised than a hundred years ago. It is to be hoped that
derelict chalk quarries will not be seen some dozen years or so
hence as silent witnesses of another downward trend in the cycle
of agriculture.
In 1937 the shadow of the coming war was already affecting
agriculture in this country, and signs were apparent that agri-
culture was already then preparing to do its share. However,
farmers were still in a generally impoverished state and the
Land Fertility Scheme was, therefore, introduced that year by
the Ministry of Agriculture in order to increase the fertility
of the soil, without making the process too heavy a charge
on the farmer. Under the Scheme a farmer was paid a subsidy
amounting to 50 per cent of the delivered cost of the lime or chalk
he purchased. An immediate response took place over the
country and deliveries of agricultural lime and chalk rose by