Grade 1 silt

It has been a day of two halves, very wet this morning and cloudless this afternoon. I never know quite what climatic conditions suit the farmers but I know they never think they are quite right.  T. explains some of this when I meet him on my walks - what sort of frost is worse for each crop and even the timing of the frost in the early morning or whether it comes after rain seem important. What the farmers cannot complain about is the soil quality.  A lot of it is grade one silt.
Apparently, according to the Agricultural Land Classification of England and Wales, the main soil properties which affect the cropping potential and management requirements of land are texture, structure, depth, stoniness and chemical fertility. These may act as limitations separately, in combination or through interactions with climate or site factors. The interactive limitations of soil wetness, droughtiness and erosion risk are important. The relationships are often complex and the criteria used in land classification are designed to provide a practical method for grading land on the basis of field assessments. Grade one soil must have a depth of at least 60 cms and less than 5% of stones larger than 2 cms.
When I removed a tree from the back garden years ago, the resulting hole was about four feet deep and no stones emerged.