My dear Farrer

When you next go to Abinger, if you can spare the time & the weather is decent, will you be so kind as to aid me once more to the many times already.—¹

I am perplexed by the amount of residue left on the surface of the chalk here & by the very little on the sloping Downs to the north of your house.— I want you to go to the Downs & select any turf-covered sloping surface & cut with any strong knife or spud a small square hole & to send me about 2 oz. of clean chalk-fragments, immediately beneath the vegetable mould. I want to ascertain the percentage of earthy matter in the chalk. You will not, I imagine, have to dig above 6 inches deep, if so much.— I sh^d like to hear what the thickness of the vegetable mould is, measured from the upper surface, at the base of the free blades of grass.

Near Winchester I find that much fine earthy matter percolates into the chalk—, from 10 to 13 per cent; whereas the unaltered upper chalk contains only from 1 to 2 per cent.—²

P.S. | Note from M^r Caird agreeing with what you generously proposed in re Torbitt.³