Farming of Lincolnshire. 



293 



wlio are appointed to repair the old drains, and are empowered to 

 tax all lands benefited, or supposed to be benefited, by their 

 works, and fine for non-payment, ^Yithout being responsible to 

 the tax- payers for the use made of their money. The drainage 

 is in general good, but many of the marsh farms might be greatly 

 improved in this respect. ^lany sluices need to be lowered, the 

 creeks narrowed, and the minor drains deepened. Throughout 

 most of the marshes there is not sufficient attention paid to the 

 depth and capacity of tunnels and of division ditches. The fields 

 are regularly surface-gripped as soon as the vrheat is sown, and 

 considerable difficulty is experienced, after a great fall of rain, in 

 keeping the water off the surface ; and the water in the dikes is 

 frequently within two feet of the top of the land for months to- 

 gether. Perhaps this inefficient state of the drainage may be 

 unavoidable where the only outlet is by feeble currents through 

 the muddv sands ; but in those districts v.hich drain bv sluices 

 into the good outfall of the Nene it mxustbe a hurtful negligence 

 which permits an inadequate system of drainage when a perfect 

 natural fall is offering every facility for the egress of the water. 

 An example occurs in the lands adjoining Lutton Leam/' a 

 channel conducting the drain water from lower grounds (more 

 inland) to the Nene, which also forms the outfall for the former 

 lands. These higher grounds next the river are not allowed to 

 drain into the Leam (to the detriment of the low lands) ; but the 

 water in the Learn is several feet lower than their water, and as 

 all of it empties into the same outfall, it is evident that the water 

 of these lands might be kept quite as low as that in the Leam, 

 and thus a fall of several feet be gained. 



On the land that has been underdrained — only a small propor- 

 tion of the Vv-hole — surface-grips are rendered unnecessary^ ; but, 

 from the want of a good outfall and the sandy nature of the bot- 

 tom soil, the drains are much too shallow, seldom laid more than 

 24 or 30 inches from the surface. Though the marshes are w^et 

 in winter, there is often a scarcity of water in summer, so that the 

 general practice is to let in water through the sea-banks in a dry 

 season. The dikes are used for fences as well as drains, and such is 

 the porous nature of the earth that the water oozes away in sum.mer^ 

 leaving the ditches empty, the fields being thus destitute of fences 

 for the stock. The salt water is then admitted, but it is a ques- 

 tion whether this convenience is not too dearly bought, as the 

 tide-water brings in a great quantity of earthy matter and silts up 

 the drains. Throughout all the marshes and manv of the fens 

 are found those subterranean currents called the soak or sock, the 

 depth of which from the surface depends upon the fall of rain, 

 the height of the tides, and the quantity of water in the ditches. 

 Upon this soak depends in a great n:Leasure the quantity of water 



