Warping. 113 



The cattle kept are usually of the Shorthorn breed, some 

 farmers going in for raising young stock, whilst others purchase 

 two-and-a-half or three-year-old bullocks, feeding some upon 

 the grass and others later in the yards or stalls. 



A large number of pigs of the large Yorkshire or Lincoln- 

 shire breeds are usually reared and fed upon a warp farm, the 

 waste and diseased potatoes being the very best and cheapest 

 food for them. 



As might be expected, the alteration in the physical 

 condition of this district, due to the presence of large tracts of 

 mud and water, is accompanied by a change in the bird life of 

 the neighbourhood. Thousands of wild fowl of various kinds 

 are to be met with, and it is an interesting fact that for many 

 years after land has been " taken off " wild geese regularly 

 visit the same localities during the winter. 



Porpoises are occasionally to be seen making their way up 

 the rivers Ouse and Trent in pursuit of the salmon, upon which 

 they feed. 



The warping process is not unknown in other countries, 

 and is to be found, for example, in Italy, in the Val di Chiana. 

 Few people, however, realise that in the small corner of 

 Lincolnshire to which the writer belongs thousands of acres 

 of waste have been, and are being, converted into land as 

 fertile as any in the kingdom. Reclamation of land is nothing 

 new ; it began in Romney Marsh, probably before the landing 

 of Julius Ca3sar, and we have only to go to the fens of Lincoln- 

 shire for more recent examples ; but nowhere in England, 

 except the districts named at the beginning of this article, is 

 agricultural land actually being made. 



James Stephenson, M.R.A.C. 



Lansdowne House, 

 Althorpe, 

 Doncaster. 



