X 

 THE FENLAND 



FROM Essex we turned a little eastward towards 

 Cambridge and soon ran off the very heavy land on 

 to the lighter drift formations on the east of Essex 

 and the borders of Herts. At one time these gravelly 

 soils were held in poor esteem ; Arthur Young, who 

 had a farm at North Mimms, declared that he found 

 he had " been living in the jaws of a wolf," but in 

 modern times drainage has disembarrassed them of the 

 land springs to which they are liable, while the 

 enormous amounts of London manure available have 

 built up both fertility and the power of resisting 

 droughts. 



Potato farming is now intensively pursued on these 

 gravels, largely by Scotch farmers who moved down 

 into this district after the rents had fallen during the 

 great depression. Farther north the chalk land sets 

 in again, and more purely corn farming is followed, 

 but the country is so low and flat that almost the only 

 signs of the chalk below are the size of the fields and 

 the clematis in the hedgerows. Towards Cambridge 

 the barley was looking well ; the crops, if not of more 

 than average size, were uniform, and at that period 

 were standing up well. Most of the barley is grown 

 after wheat, for in East Anglia, its original home, the 

 Norfolk four-course rotation has been almost every- 



