66 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



liable to be covered by the streams flowing into it in time of 

 flood. &quot; The Ancholme valley, for the most part, lies below the 

 level of high-water mark of spring tides. It is probable that at 

 no very distant period it was overflowed by the tide. The mouth 

 of the River Ancholme, emptying into the Humber, would fre 

 quently become blocked up by the deposit of alluvial matter, 

 and thus the drainage water from the interior would be ob 

 structed, so that, at times, the level would be completely inun 

 dated, and, even under the most favorable circumstances, would 

 never be properly drained, and necessarily become a vast stag 

 nant marsh, more or less intersected with streams and pools of 

 water, according to the particular state of the season, and the 

 ever-varying condition of the River Humber, into which it dis 

 charges its water.&quot; The Bedfordshire level is stated to contain 

 300,000 acres ; and a company is now formed, who propose to 

 redeem 150,000 acres more. They have already begun their 

 operations. All these tracts are on the north and north-eastern. 

 side of England, and adjacent to each other. 



1 have been through a very considerable portion of this dis 

 trict ; and, where formerly the lands were covered with the tides, 

 or otherwise rendered inaccessible or incapable of cultivation 

 from their wetness, populous villages are now found, and farm 

 houses, surrounded with cultivated fields in a state of the highest 

 productiveness, meet the eye continually. The whole amount 

 drained and redeemed is stated to be full 500.000 acres. 



3. THE ANCHOLME DRAINAGE. The commencement of the 

 i^reat work by which these lands have been drained dates back 

 to an early period. There are said to exist in England, particu 

 larly on the banks of the Thames, works of embankments, to 

 exclude the water from the land, which were made by the Ro 

 mans. The plan for redeeming these fen lands was laid, and its 

 execution commenced, as early as the middle of the thirteenth 

 entury. Its most important improvements were commenced 



stone hills, which divides it from the valley of the Trent ; about 50,000 acres of 

 this ridge drain also into the Ancholme. On the south it is bounded by a 

 low ridge of diluvial hills, which divides it from the valley of the Witham ; and 

 on the north is situated the River Humber ; so that the total quantity of land 

 draining 1 into the Ancholme may be said to be about 200,000 acres.&quot; Journal 

 of Society of Civil Engineers. 



