ON DRAINING. 



93 



Its deposit immediately in the neig-liLourliood of Bridg-e- 

 water has occasioned a great manufacture of very superior 

 bricks and earthenware ; and there is one article of almost 

 ■universal domestic use, called the bath-brick, for cleaning- 

 knives, &c., made at IBridgewater only ; and it is singular 

 that the sludge or mud I'rom which these bricks are made is 

 collected from the river Parrot's banks, within about a mile 

 above and a mile below the town of Bridgewater. The 

 banks of those particular two miles of the river alone 

 afford the precipitate fit for the manufacture of the bath- 

 brick. The deposit formed, whether more inland or more 

 ' seaward, is found to be unfitted for the purpose. So, in the 

 warped lands formed from the water of the Humber, whether 

 passed immediately from that river, the Ouse, or the Trent, 

 great difference in the quality of the deposit and the fertility 

 of the soil in respect of the proportions of clay, sand, and 

 salt is discernible and well known. 



Great difterence also exists as to the necessity of draining- 

 warped lands, arising from the depth of warp, the character 

 of the subsoil on which the warp is run, and the particular 

 composition of the warp itself in its proportions of clay and 

 sand. Near to the mouth of the Humber, it strikes me that 

 there is a much larger proportion of aliuuina (clay) deposited, 

 in respect of silica (sand), than about Goole, Thorn, and 

 other warping- districts. There is no doubt, also, much more 

 common salt in the composition the nearer to the Humber 

 mouth. 



The quantity of salt in wliich the wheat plant will flourish 

 is curiously illustrated in the warp soils about Patrington, 

 and Avould be scarcely credited unless seen. The whole 

 surface of a larg-e reclaimed warp-piece on Mr. Marshall's 

 estate was planted with whe-at for the first time in the 

 autumn of 1844. "When I saw it in the autumn of 1845, the 

 surface of the gTound was crystallized all over with salt, evi- 

 dencing the enormous cjuantity which the mass of the bed must 

 have contained ; yet fr-om this first crop, the tenant told me 

 lie had thrashed out twenty-four bushels per acre. The 

 order of culture there, after warping, is to leave the land to 

 the occupancy of what is called the sheep g-rass, which 

 naturally skins it for three years, when that begins to die oft'. 

 It is then ploughed up, and sown with rape allowed to g-o to 

 seed. This plant is considered to remove the very injurious 

 excess of salt, and great crops of it are obtained. Wheat 

 follows, and after that any other crop to the farmer's lildng-, 



