272 



Farming of Lincohishire, 



springs. The lower chalk rock underlies probably about half 

 the surface of this district. The pits show a considerable thick- 

 ness of rubbly chalk above the regularly stratified and fissured 

 rock, and between the two there is often a seam of clay, or 

 yellowish marl, 1 or 2 feet in thickness. The upper chalk, 

 occupying the eastern side of the Wolds, has horizontal layers 

 of flint at every 6 feet downwards, each layer being from 4 to 8 

 or more inches thick.* The soil upon these two strata of chalk 

 is nearly all of the same character, except where local beds of 

 drift occur, and the main difference seems to be that the land is 

 naturally warmer on the west than on the east side of the Wolds. 

 The soil is a sandy loam, containing flints and fragments of chalk 

 in more or less abundance, the open and permeable nature of the 

 subsoil rendering it perfectly dry in summer and well-drained in 

 winter. It naturally produces a short good herbage for sheep, 

 but its capability of yielding roots or grain under arable culture 

 depends entirely upon the treatment it receives. The quality is 

 exceedingly variable : some land still continues a thin coating of 

 light sand, other parts have become deep fertile flinty loams, — 

 some of the rich friable lands producing fine crops of barley and 

 wheat, and other portions (particularly in the valleys) forming ex- 

 cellent pasturage for sheep and breeding cattle. The Plastic clay, 

 lying on the dip side of the Wolds, appears to cover the hills to 

 some extent with a thin stratum of red flinty clay or brick earth. 

 This deposit is found to be deeper on the eastern slopes of the dif- 

 ferent hills than on the west, and vvith such a dry subsoil as the 

 chalk rock forms a most useful description of land, calculated to 

 grow any kind of grain in abundance. It varies from 1 to 3 feet 

 in thickness. 



The formations above the chalk in both Lincolnshire and York- 

 shire have not hitherto been satisfactorily explored, and have been 

 too hastily considered as entirely concealed by alluvial or diluvial 

 deposits; but from various facts it appears that this is not univer- 

 sally the case, and that the regular tertiaries may be observed, 

 though separated from the main tract of the London basin by the 

 estuary of the Wash. It seems also that the clay strata of that 

 basin, which die away above the chalk in Norfolk, are again pre- 

 sent in Lincolnshire. Eastward of the Wolds is an undulating 

 tract of country sinking gradually towards the sea, and stretching 

 from Barton north to Firsby south, with a breadth of about 5 

 miles. It has been named " the clays," or '- middle marsh," as it 

 consists of heavy land midway between the hills and salt marsh. 

 The soil of Holderness in Yorkshire (somewhat similar to this) 



* The chalk is too soft to use for building purposes, and is employed as a founda- 

 tion for roads. The lime obtained from it is tit only for the land, and' for that purpose 

 is not so strong and good as lime burned from Yorkshire slone. 



