Farming of Lincolnshire. 



267 



formed by the lias. East and west of Hough village it is a deep 

 red soil of rich quality ; and the higher lands of Great Gonerby 

 parish are the best description of red land. Barrowby hill is the 

 same^ enclosing a winding valley of the lias clay v/hich runs on 

 both sides of the Nottingham canal up to Grantham. The clay 

 which forms the low lands in both Gonerby and Barrowby is very 

 strong, but of productive quality. The soil on the hill at Bar- 

 rowby is a deep red loam resting upon a yellow and ferruginous 

 freestone rock ; at Woolsthorpe it is a rich red sand, and all along 

 the edge of the vale it is generally a sandy loam mixed with 

 stones. These outlying beds of inferior oolite abound in iron, 

 of which there are veins in the shape of dark red ironstones. 

 The lordships of Barrowby and Honington are said to rival each 

 other in the richness of their soil ; but Barrowby may probably 

 be considered as the most fertile parish in Lincolnshire, produc- 

 ing vast crops of wheat, barley, and oats, fine turnips, and (like 

 the land at Belton, i&c.) large trees of beech, lime, ash^ &c. 

 The great oolite occupies all the south-west corner of the county, 

 and is bounded on the east by a line drawn from the neighbour- 

 hood of Sleaford to Corby, and thence to the shire boundary near 

 Uffington. It is generally a white limestone, but on the east, 

 from Qaarrington to Ingoldsby, it changes to a hard blue stone, 

 which is both burnt for lime and used for repairing roads. Near 

 the town of Sleaford the cornbrash appears upon the surface, and 

 is found stretching away southward in a narrow band to the 

 vicinity of Tallington, near Stamford, having its greatest breadth 

 between Corby and Edenham., about 4^ mxiles, dipping pretty 

 uniformly eastward, and always entering under the Oxford clay. 

 The wildest part of both these beds of limestone taken together is 

 from Edenham westward, about 10 or 11 miles. This tract com- 

 prehends various strata of fine and coarse limestone, with clay part- 

 ings between the beds, having a covering of tenacious calcareous 

 and argillaceous soil, often mingled v.'ith slaty fragments of the 

 rock on which it rests. This soil is of good quality when dry, 

 producing beans and wheat, and is yet not too strong for turnips. 

 Between Grantham and Corby is much cold wet clay, but a 

 great portion of this rests upon deposits of drift ; and the re- 

 mainder is a dry and fertile sandy earth upon the white limestone 

 rock. Much of the eastern portion of the oolite district in the 

 neighbourhood of Foikingham, Osbournby, &c., has a soil of 

 Creech" — the name applied here to loam on stone, a stiff, wet, 

 stony soil, very dirty in winter, but when well under-drained 

 forming productive kind. Between Corby and Edenham, and 

 southward, the soil varies from clay to creech and sand ; the 

 Creech making good arable land, and the clay being in some 

 places good, but much of it cold, wet, and poor. On the coarse. 



