What type of land?

The answer to this depends very much upon what you want to do.

Many rural resettlers will want principally to grow vegetables. There is no reason why you shouldn't grow vegetables on any type of soil, but the heavier it is the more carefully it will have to be managed.

Ideal soils are medium loams which have a high water retention to carry them through dry periods and at the same time are free draining so that they can be worked during the winter with-out damaging soil structure.

Sandy soils are O.K. but they will need high applications of organic matter and of irrigation water during dry periods. Vegetables grow quickly and are very shallow rooted so that irrigation is frequently needed during the summer months if growth is not to be checked. On sandy soils therefore, it is important to check that adequate irrigation is available.

Cereals are relatively undemanding and can be grown on most soils, though they also prefer medium loams to light chalky loams.

New techniques of sowing without cultivation using herbicides are up heavier clay soils to cereals with very good results but it is unlikely that rural resettlers would have the scale of operation to justify these techniques, even should they wish to use them.

If you want to go in for livestock farming, grassland is the least demanding of the lot. Best yields are obtained from heavier loams, silts and clays, but these can present problems of waterlogging in the winter.

Geographically, there are few rules about soils. Chalky loams tend to be found, as would be expected, in chalk downland areas. Fenland peats are restricted mainly to East Anglia and part of Lancashire. Otherwise, clays, sands, silts and loams may be found anywhere in the country.

Information on soil types is available for some areas of the country from The Soil Survey of England and Wales, Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts.