Farming of Lincolnshire. 



287 



colour, a mixture of clay, silt, and vegetable matter. This has 

 evidently been deposited from the muddy waters of the H umber, 

 which, previous to the erection of the banks, must have inundated 

 the level with from 4 to 9 or more feet of water. At Ferriby 

 Sluice the alluvial silt and clay is more than 25 feet in depth ; the 

 beds upon which the alluvium rests have not been examined. The 

 clay underlies the whole surface of the level, and was doubtless 

 deposited by the FI umber waters and the streams from the hills. 

 Under the hills by Horkstow, Saxby, &c., is a line of soft peat, 

 forming wet and rushy grass land. In Worlaby and other adjoin- 

 ing carrs " the soil is peaty with a clay subsoil, the clay being 

 often near enough to be brought up by deep ploughing. In 

 Roxby and Appleby carrs, on the west side of the river Ancholme, 

 there are 3 or 4 inches of peat upon blue clay which are mingled 

 with excellent effect. This district stretches as far southward of 

 Brigg as that town is from the Humber, and in the southern part 

 the soil is a spongy peat, containing black wood or subterranean 

 timber, and the clay is generally too deep to be touched by the 

 plough. There is much sediment mixed with the peat, and the 

 substratum of clay is evidently a warped soil. 



On a large sand-bank in the Humber, opposite Ferriby, called 

 *Uhe Old Warp," about 100 acres have been embanked. The 

 ebb tide scours away the soil from the Yorkshire side of this 

 island (about 4 miles long and 1 mile broad), and an addition is 

 being continually made to the Lincoln side : the embankment has 

 been made on that portion which is not liable to turn over." 



At Wintringham the marsh becomes very narrow ; it is an 

 excellent warp soil, 6 feet in depth. 



Along the east bank of the Trent is a belt of alluvial soil a few 

 hundred yards in width, deposited by the ancient overflowings of 

 the tide — a rich earth capable of growing any crop. The fiat 

 land extending between this and the foot of the Red Sandstone and 

 Lias Hill was a tract of peat moor, worth nothing but to cut fuel 

 from, but is now (with but few exceptions) covered with from 18 

 inches to 3 feet of the richest artificial warp. Probably the alluvium 

 and remaining peat may have an extent of 8000 or 9000 acres. 



In the Isle of Axholme are about 15,000 acres of warp land, 

 partly a natural deposit from the Trent, and partly obtained from 

 floodings of the tides upon the low sand and peat. This soil is 

 remarkably rich, and the chief part of it is capable of growing 

 every description of garden and vegetable produce. The warp 

 upon the white or grey sand is usually the best, for it has then a 

 natural subsoil drainage. The same tidal action has been at work 

 here which deposited the alluvium of the south-eastern district 

 highest next the sea, the land next the Trent becoming lower as 

 it leaves the river. Near the river, at Althorpe, &c„ the blue 



