CHAP. xin. DETAILS OF WARPING. 891 



tons burthen have passed, bringing cargoes of manure from Hull, 

 London, and elsewhere, and taking out a return cargo of potatoes for 

 the London and other markets. This canal is nearly one hundred feet 

 in width, and is continued for a distance of about seven or eight miles, 

 warping, and thereby converting bad land (chiefly peat) into good, on 

 both sides its course. 



When the land to be warped is not under cultivation, the necessary 

 preparations may be made at any time, but when the reverse is the 

 case, it is of course needful to defer the work until after harvest, when 

 the land is surrounded by an embankment varying in height from three 

 to six feet, according to circumstances, the internal canals or inlets 

 cut, &c. The area to be warped may vary from thirty to forty acres (a 

 very primitive method) to three or four hundred, according to the size 

 of the sluice and canal. All the necessary preparations having been 

 completed, the doors of the sluice are thrown wide open at low water 

 to the full force of the rising tide, which is conducted by the canal to 

 the land to be warped. 



When warp is in the rivers or warping canals it is impossible to 

 distinguish its various constituents one from another, but as soon as 

 the tide has reached the land and begins to spread itself over a larger 

 area, the force of the current is very considerably weakened, and the 

 heavier particles begin at once to fall to the ground ; and whilst the 

 medium are carried somewhat farther, the lightest float to the more 

 remote portions of the inclosure. 



One of the peculiarities of warp is that those particles which when 

 in the water are heaviest make the lightest and most friable land, and 

 vice versa. Hence it is highly necessary, when the water has reached 

 the land, that a portion of it be confined in smaller inlets or canals, 

 and thereby conducted to the various parts of the inclosure, before 

 being allowed to expand over the entire area, by which means the warp 

 is more evenly distributed, and a more uniform quality of land is the 

 permanent result. 



The length of time required for warping a piece of land depends on 

 several circumstances, viz. : the thickness of warp it is necessary to lay 

 on in order to raise the land sufficiently high to drain well in times of 

 heavy and continuous rainfall ; the distance the land lies from the 

 nearest available supply ; the state of the weather dry seasons being 

 the best, the tides then containing a larger percentage of warp than in 

 wet ones ; the area inclosed ; and the capacity of the sluice and canal. 

 The average duration of the process may be put down at from two to 

 three years. In the spring and summer there is a larger proportion 

 of warp in the water than in the winter, in consequence of the rainfall 

 being usually much less in these seasons of the year. The "flood" tides 

 at the new and full moon both in summer and winter, contain a far 

 larger quantity of warp than the " neap " tides, owing to the greater 

 volume of water that then comes up from the sea, the violence of which 

 stirs up the warp that during the neap tides had partially settled at the 

 bottom of the Humber. The work is performed at one or two opera- 

 tions, according to circumstances, the second warping taking place 



