46£ THE POTATO 



once In a thousand years. Nevertheless, it is 

 used. 



The black fen land produces enormous crops of 

 grass, grains, roots, potatoes, and the most won- 

 drous crops of peas. I saw from forty to sixty 

 acres of peas in a lot and they yield forty to fifty 

 bushels per acre. This year they are bringing very 

 high prices in the city markets. I saw 250 women 

 and children in one field picking the pea pods and 

 sacking them for city markets. At a distance they 

 looked like a great flock of sheep in the long rows. 



These lands are now valued at from $350 to 

 $500 an acre. As the country recedes from the 

 sea it has more drainage and the soil is more of a 

 clay. The lands are tiled. The lines of tile are 

 from ten to twenty yards apart and the tiles are 

 laid four to five feet deep. The original cost of 

 the canals for construction was 75 cents an acre 

 and 25 cents an acre maintenance every four or 

 five years for cleaning and pumping. 



Lincolnshire is noted for its specialized breed 

 of livestock. In a week's motoring I saw nothing 

 but Lincolnshire sheep and Lincoln Red Short- 

 horn cattle. They are all cherry red, and are de- 

 scended from the old Shorthorn stocks. They are 

 larger than the modem Shorthorn and much better 

 milkers. They are good grazers. I was very 

 much interested in the weight of some bullocks I 

 saw grazing in a pasture, but I could not learn of a 

 single weigh bridge (scales) in the whole of Lin- 

 colnshire. I saw 201 thirty-month-old bullocks, 

 all cherry red, sold to a butcher by one firm of 

 farmers, W. D. Dennis and Sons of Kirton. It 

 would have been interesting to have witnessed 

 the deal made, as this was said to have been the 

 largest sale of bullocks from one farm at one time 



