red land
[red a. 1 f.]
1. Sc. Ploughed land; fallow; arable land.
| a 1578 Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (1814) 499 It was ane fauch eard and Rid land quhair they moved for the tyme. a 1800 Elfin Knight xi. in Child Ballads I. 16/2 Ye'll get an acre o gude red-land..And ye maun aer it wi your horn. 1805 Forsyth Beauties Scotl. II. 67 Lands under summer fallow in this county [Roxburgh] correspond correctly..with the common Scottish appellation of red land. a 1848 Kerr Maggie o' the Moss (1891) 84 We will never try to slim Red-land or lea. |
2. Sandy or clayey soil of a reddish colour.
| 1712 J. Morton Nat. Hist. Northampt. 40 Red-Land is a Term much us'd by the Husbandmen here, and in Neighbour Counties... They always apply it to a Sandy Soil of a Reddish Hue, interspersed..with Pieces of Sand-Stone of the same Colour. 1813 Young Agric. Oxfordsh. 3 This county contains three distinctions of soil..1. The red-land of the northern district; which, in fertility, much exceeds that of any other portion of equal extent. 1856 [see land n.1 2]. 1857 Olmsted Journ. Texas 67 This tract is known as the Red Lands of Eastern Texas. |
| attrib. 1712 J. Morton Nat. Hist. Northampt. 41 In most of the Red-land Soil..there is more Sand than Earth. Ibid. 48 In all Red-land Fields..we may see..many Iron⁓colour'd Stones. 1813 Young Agric. Oxfordsh. 4 The Red⁓land District. |