282 



Small Holdings on Crown Lands, [august, 



therefore, there are only two farms, comprising 1,485 acres 

 in all, for which tenants have not been found, and in these 

 cases negotiations are in progress for letting the whole or 

 part of them. It is doubtful whether either of these farms 

 is particularly well adapted for small holdings, but it is hoped 

 by the date of the next report that tenants will have been 

 found for at least a considerable proportion of them. 



Reference was made last year in the report of Mr. Horner, 

 one of the Commissioners of Woods, to the negotiations 

 which were then in progress for letting the Crown farm at 

 Burwell, Cambridgeshire, for small holdings. This letting 

 was duly arranged, and the land handed over before Lord 

 Carrington was vested with the charge of the Crown agricul- 

 tural estates ; but as the transaction has attracted consider- 

 able public attention, information on the subject is included 

 in the report. The farm in question, which comprises 917 

 acres and includes an excellent large farmhouse, two small 

 farmhouses, and 15 cottages, is situated in or adjoining the 

 village of Burwell, which has a population of nearly 2,000, 

 and is within 4 miles of the market town of Newmarket. 

 There are two railway stations within a mile of different 

 parts of the farm. 



The estate is divided practically into three blocks : — 



1. Pitts Farm and Slade Farm comprising about 479 acres 

 adjoining the village of Burwell, about 34 acres of which are 

 old pasture and 20 acres grass recently laid down. Nearly 

 the whole of this land is thin white land on a chalk subsoil 

 of good quality for white straw crops, beans, peas, clovers 

 and sainfoin, but it is of a sticky nature, and for this reason 

 not the best land for wintering sheep. 



2. Ness and Broads Farm of 335 acres situate half way 

 between the villages of Burwell and Fordham, including 

 about 73 acres of grass, principally of poor quality, part 

 having been recently laid down. About a third of the arable 

 land is white land of somewhat similar nature to the Slade 

 Farm above referred to, and the remainder is skirt and fen 

 land varying from good quality mixed soil to black fen land 

 of moderate quality. 



3. A fen farm of 102 acres adjoining Reach Lode, formerly 

 arable but now in poor fen grass. The fen land is capable of 



