FLAX 1 1 3 



longer, for the Doncaster coalfield is creeping eastward 

 and shafts are already threatened in the midst of the 

 Thorne Moors. Rents are high, from 2 to 3 an 

 acre, and the farms run comparatively large, from 

 200 to 400 acres, and are almost entirely under the 

 plough. Potatoes and wheat are the standard crops, 

 the usual rotation being potatoes, wheat, then half the 

 land in roots and half in clover and rye-grass. To a 

 certain extent mangolds replace potatoes or turnips, 

 and oats are taken instead of wheat. The potatoes 

 are heavily manured with whatever dung may be 

 available, or, better still, by ploughing in the second 

 growth of the preceding clover crop ; they also receive 

 an artificial mixture, generally of superphosphate and 

 nitrate of soda, in very large quantities. As a rule main 

 crop varieties are grown, they are rarely sprouted before 

 planting ; spraying against blight is general, but is not 

 perhaps made so much of as in the Boston district. 



The warpland is also famous for its wheat ; a yield 

 of six or seven quarters is general, though few fields 

 were expected to reach that high figure during the 

 year of our visit. Some of the wheat gets sold for 

 seed ; at one time seed wheat off the warpland 

 was regarded as a good change for almost every 

 other description of soil. No stock were to be seen 

 on the land ; permanent pastures are rare, except a 

 field or two near the homestead, there were no sheep 

 and very few dairy cows, the custom being to fatten 

 bought stores through the winter. 



Very little was to be seen of special crops ; here 

 and there a few acres of celery were growing, generally 

 the property of one of the few small holders who have 

 somehow got a footing in this region of comparatively 

 large occupiers. Flax, we heard, used to be grown 

 in the district in quantity ; the last mill, itself a 



