230 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



immense ditches and indestructible dykes, are the 

 means employed for effecting the object. The lands 

 reclaimed are already intersected with roads and rail- 

 roads ; towns have been built, and farms laid out upon 

 them. These once submerged and unproductive lands 

 are let at a rent of 25s. to 30s. per acre. Cereal and 

 root crops are occasionally to be seen ; but the most part 

 is in grass, upon which are fattened short-horned cattle, 

 and sheep of a cross between the old Lincolnshire and the 

 Dishley. 



All the north of Cambridgeshire forms part of the 

 fen district. The average rent there has doubled within 

 the last forty years. Population has rapidly increased, 

 owing either to the improved climate, or because the 

 progress of draining has produced a demand for labour. 

 The southern part of the county is not in such a satisfac- 

 tory state ; it more resembles Hertfordshire, of which it 

 forms in a manner the continuation. Clay soils predo- 

 minate, and consequently the crisis there was pretty 

 severe ; moreover, the inhabitants live in constant dread 

 of fires. The farm buildings being all constructed of 

 wood, and roofed with straw, a fire makes great havoc. 

 The least discontent among the labouring population is 

 shown in incendiary acts, the authors of which almost 

 always escape the vigilance of the police. This evil 

 appears also in other parts of England, but nowhere to 

 such an extent as in Cambridgeshire. Assurance com- 

 panies sometimes altogether refuse to insure steadings 

 which have been burnt several times. The blaze of these 

 fires reflects the bad condition of the labouring classes 

 in those counties which are only agricultural: of these, 

 Cambridgeshire is one ; the poor there amount to a tenth 

 of the population. 



Between Cambridge and Bedford lies the small county 



