88 SPECIALIST FARMING POTATOES 



though in these cases earlies are generally planted and 

 dug soon enough to enable a crop of rape to follow 

 for sheep -keep. The rotation is as a rule potatoes, 

 oats, wheat, but one of the wheat crops is partially 

 replaced by beans, and after two of these three-year 

 courses, a crop of red clover is generally grown. 

 Sheep -keep is sown after either potatoes or wheat 

 whenever the season allows ; sometimes a crop of 

 seed-mustard breaks the rotation. The potatoes re- 

 ceived any farmyard manure that might be available, 

 but as this only provided for a small fraction of the 

 great area given up to the crop, the main part of the 

 manuring was done with artificial fertilizers. Often 

 the red clover was allowed to grow after the first cut, 

 and the second growth was ploughed under, thus 

 enriching the land as much as a coating of dung 

 would have done. Naturally the oats and wheat 

 which followed the potatoes required no manure. 

 Many of the fields showed a broad band of a different 

 crop from that occupying the middle of the field ; this 

 represented the sites of the potato " pits " or clamps 

 which had not been cleared in time to treat all the 

 field alike. Evidently the land was being very highly 

 farmed, as may be judged from the fact that even the 

 early potatoes were expected to yield from five to 

 eleven tons per acre, according to the date at which 

 they were lifted. Of course, really early potatoes, in 

 the sense that the crops from Jersey, St Malo, and 

 even Ayrshire are early, cannot be grown in Lincoln ; 

 their earlies are heavy cropping varieties which come 

 on the market when the south and west can no longer 

 supply it. One of these crops was then being lifted. 

 A plough was drawn along the rows and threw the 

 potatoes out, whereupon they were picked up by a 

 gang of women and children and brought to a foreman, 



