50 ON THE RECLAMATION 



enclosure, and sown with oats, which proved a very fine crop. 

 This was succeeded by a four-course rotation, and continued in 

 crop till 1855, when it was gradually laid down in grass, as 

 more profitable than the cultivation of corn. It still remains in 

 grass, with the exception of ten acres. I consider the land quite 

 equal to the ancient enclosed land/' 



This enclosure refers to land having had a long period for 

 accretion, being an " old marsh." The training walls on the 

 Lune, which were completed in 1851 by Messrs Stevenson, 

 have had the effect of fixing the channel, so as to allow the 

 marshes to extend their limits, but no additional land has been 

 enclosed by embankments in consequence of the navigation works. 



The Huniber. 



The Humber, as already noticed, is a river largely charged 

 with alluvial matter, and Mr Oldham states the following as his 

 experience, in the ' Proceedings of the Institution of Civil En- 

 gineers : ' " Soon after the exclusion of the tidal water the 

 marine grasses and vegetation begin to die and decay, and in 

 the course of one or two years fresh- water grasses appear ; after 

 the lapse of about three years a tolerably good surface of pasture 

 is naturally formed. But that which is most surprising is the 

 spontaneous appearance and the growth on the enclosures of Sunk 

 Island of an entire covering of white clover, which presents it- 

 self within three or four years of the date of the exclusion of the 

 salt water. Where the land is destined for crop the first sown 

 is rape, about the third or fourth year after the enclosure, and 

 the produce is usually of extraordinary quantity and vigour. 

 The following season oats or beans may be sown, and then 



