The soil in the eastern side of the county is gene rally of a sandy nature. For the most part it is more tenacious, and there is often a stiff but rich clay in the bottom of the wider vallies. In the most western parts the soil is very shallow, resting principally upon rocks of different kinds, and is more or less used for pastur ing sheep than for raising grain. The rapid progress of improvement in enclosing and draining has greatly diminished the moor lands. A very great part of the soil of the county rests upon a limestone subsoil.
The operations of agriculture are better conducted in Shropshire than in many other counties in England. The farms are commonly large. They are, in some instances, held on leases for life—in others, on leases of seven, ten, and twenty-one years, and in many cases from year to year. The crops commonly cultivated are wheat, barley, oats, pease, turnips, and potatoes. Hops, hemp, flax, and cabbages are raised only in small quantities. The growth of hay, and the im provement of pasture land, have been more overlooked than any other branch of rural economy. On the banks of the Severn, however, and on the margin of several of the lesser streams, there are many excellent tracts of meadow land, which are enriched solely by the deposits of the rivers when in flood. Almost all the cultivated lands in Shropshire arc enclosed. The principal commons that remain are that of near Bridgenorth, about five miles long, and three broad, and the high lands between Church Stretton and Bish op's Castle, and from Clun to the borders of Radnor shire. There are several large mosses in the county. The principal herd of sheep is the Southdowns, but there are many of the New Leicesters, and several of the fine-woolled Welsh sheep in the hilly districts. In the neighbourhood of the Wrckin of Bridgenorth and of Clun, the wool is considered to be equal in quality to that or Leicester.
Shropshire has been long distinguished for its mine ral productions, and the trades and manufactures to which these have been subservient. The principal of these are coal, iron, lead, limestone, freestone, petro leum, and pipe-clay. Good coal is found in abundance in different parts of the county. The most important coal held, however, occupies a district near Colebrook dale, about eight miles long and two broad. The coal is here Found at various depths, alternately with iron stone, sandstone, and other rocks. The strata slope
to the east in Madeley parish, and to the north and north-east near Wellington and Lilleshall. A long broad range of sandstone hounds the coal district on the east, commencing north of Shifinall, and following the line of the Severn till it leaves the county. On the south and west it is bounded by limestone, and the basalt of the \Vrekin. The southern part of the coal district, and indeed nearly the whole of it, is consider ably elevated above the plain of Shropshire, so that at one part the height is 500 feet above the Severn. Near the north-west boundary of the county is another bed of coal, which is wrought to a considerable extent, and is employed in the lime works of Chirk and Llanymyneck. On the west this coal field is bounded by, and lies above an irregular bed of limestone, which in some places scarcely appears above the sur face, and in others rises to a height of 500 feet. On the cast the coal field is bounded by a ridge of sand stone, stretching from Ellesmere along the Perry, crossing the Severn, and ending at Bicton and Onslow. Another coal district in the south of the county, par ticularly on the Brown Clee and Titterson Clec Hills, consists of various detached beds or hollows, in which the strata has the form of a cup. In the first of these hills the strata are so thin that they are wrought only by poor colliers; but in Titterson the chief stratum is six feet thick, and there are here six coal fields, the principal of which is the Cornbrook, the Newbury, and the llillwork coal fields. The first is a mile long, and half a mile broad.
The ironstone occurs in the neighbourhood of the coal, and frequently close to it. It is not rich, but being found along with coal and lime, the fuel and the flux, it has rendered Colebrookdale the scat of the most extensive iron works in the kingdom.
Lead is procured in considerable quantities from various parts of the Stiperstoncs, but particularly from the Hope and Snailbeach mines. Its matrix is crys tallized quartz, sulphate and carbonate of barytes, and carbonate of lime. It occurs in the form of sulphuret of lead, and the carbonate. It is reduced at Minsterley and other places near the mines, and is sent by land to Shrewsbury, where it is shipped for Bristol in the Severn barges.