COST OF WARPING in 



been irregular, after which it passes into general 

 cultivation and can be let at 2 an acre or thereabouts. 

 Sometimes the land settles so much after it has been 

 in cultivation, through the decay or consolidation of 

 the underlying peat, that the warping is repeated and 

 another foot or two of soil is added. The chief item 

 in the expenditure is the construction of the warping 

 canal, hence the cost of warping depends on the 

 extent of land that can be dealt with by one canal ; 

 roughly the capital outlay is considered to be about 

 20 an acre, at which cost the waste moors possess- 

 ing only a nominal value become worth 40 to 50 

 per acre. 



Warping does nothing more than systematize and 

 bring under control the natural process of building up 

 alluvial flats which is going on in every estuary ; it 

 appears to have been introduced into this part of the 

 country about a hundred years ago, and not to be 

 practised in any other part of England ; but, under the 

 name of colmatage, it is well known in the valley of 

 the Po and near the mouth of the Rhone. Doubtless 

 there are many other tidal flats in Great Britain where 

 it might be advantageously pursued, because the 

 resulting land is both rich to start with and admirably 

 suited for cultivation. 



While considerable areas of these Thome Moors and 

 of Hatfield Chase, which lie in the great flat expanse 

 between the Isle of Axholme proper, Goole to the 

 westward, and the hills beyond the Trent on the other 

 side, have thus been artificially warped, the best land 

 of all is the naturally warped land which lies highest 

 close to the river bank. This lets for as much as ^3 

 an acre, and it owes its value to the fact that it is 

 always the driest part of the country. At a lower 

 level than the natural warp, and a little farther back 



