The Nineteenth Century 131 



rode over only nine arable fields; "most of it had been seeded down". 

 On "the boiilder clay formation to the west of Cambridge, a considerable 

 area" had been left uncultivated.' There were also "much fewer stock and 

 sheep being kept in the county". Mr Dymock, who farmed 600 acres at 

 Waterbeach, said that the condition of the land had been going back for 

 twelve years. "It began in the bad season of 1879, when the heavy land 

 got into a very bad state. Then bad prices came, and hence so much money 

 could not be spent on it." Mr W. J. Clark, of Thriplow, could "point to 

 farms that 10 years ago were patterns for cleanhness and good farming 

 that are now in a deplorable state". Arrears and reductions of rent were 

 "undoubtedly large in number".^ Mr Martin Slater, of Weston ColviUe, 

 thought that the land had "very greatly gone back in condition during the 

 last 25 years in his district". Of the land outside the Fens, "the turnip and 

 barley land near Newmarket " (i.e. light land) was said to have suffered least. 

 The evidence from the Fenland was less doleful. It was true that some 

 locahties had deteriorated, "pardy from the effect of the seasons and pardy 

 from want of capital". Since the depression, fewer catde and sheep had 

 been kept. At Chatteris, it was stated that "the high lands and gravel lands 

 have certainly gone back". That all was not desolation, however, can be 

 seen from the following statement made at a meeting of farmers at Wisbech 

 in 1894: , 



Generally speaking, the strong land has deteriorated. The wet seasons had a great 

 deal to do with it, as weU as loss of capital. Last year [1893] did a lot to help the 

 strong land. Men wdl not put money into strong land farming. The acreage of 

 wheat crop has decreased by 25 per cent in dais district. The fen land has gone back 

 very little in condition; but it is not clayed so much, partly from want of capital, 

 but pardy because it is becoming stronger on account of the peat disappearing 

 owing to the drainage.^ The marsh land has not gone back a bit between Wisbech 

 and Long Sutton ; there has been the means of enabling the people to escape from 

 the depression. They are able to grow the best class of potatoes, vegetables, and 

 fruit. The men in the marsh have been hit to some extent by prices, but are better 

 off than other people occupying land. 



Thus was a new element called in to redress the balance of the older 

 economy. The first orchard had been planted in the Wisbech area as early 

 as the fifties ; now, in the eighties and nineties, many farmers found them- 

 selves forced to adopt a fresh form of husbandry, and so turned to market 

 gardening and fruit farming.* The new crops had also been spreading on 

 the upland.5 The Chivers' enterprise around Histon dates from the middle 



' See p. 56 above. ^ W. Fox, op. cii. p. 34. ^ See p. 120 above. 



* See C. Wright and J. F. Ward, A Survey of the Soils and Fruit of the Wisbech Area 

 (1929), pp. 25-7. 

 5 J. F. Ward, West Cambridgeshire Fruit-Growing Area (1933), pp. 29-33. 



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