294 



Farming of Lincolnshire. 



in the wells and ponds, of which latter there is one in each field. 

 The sea and river water is therefore admitted for the double pur- 

 pose of fencing- and watering the stock ; but it has been sug- 

 gested that by planting quicks (and many have already been set), 

 by deepening the ditches, and puddling the ponds (if needful) 

 with clay, a better drainage might be obtained that would amply 

 repay all the expense by the improved crops and pastures. Great 

 loss is now experienced by the graziers, in consequence of the 

 injury done to their sheep and cattle by the saline qualities of 

 the herbage and the brack water in the ditches — the total exclu- 

 sion of salt water, and a deep subsoil drainage, are the remedies 

 for this evil. 



About 32,000 acres of the lower and southern portions of this 

 great district (including the lands which drain by an ancient sewer 

 — called the ''Lord's Drain" — into the Welland) form what is 

 called the " South Holland Drainage," the great outfall of which 

 is the river Nene. The drainage waters from this tract had for- 

 merly to pass northward through the higher grounds, in conse- 

 quence of which it was flooded three-fourths of the year. Raven's 

 Bank and others yet remain that were anciently made to defend 

 the marsh towns from the fen waters, and the grass fields contain 

 many parallel trenches evidently excavated as reservoirs for the 

 floods and the earth raised up as a refuge for the cattle. As the 

 stock used to forage in the wet grounds, and have their lair on the 

 higher spots, the "hills" in such fields are now found to be the 

 richest pasture. The main drains ri^n eastward from Peakhill 

 near the Welland bank to the sluice on the river Nene, near 

 Sutton Bridge, intersecting almost at right angles all the ancient 

 drains and sewers. For many years after the formation of the 

 drains, the country remained in a deplorably wet state, though 

 saddled by an enormous drainage-tax ; and it was not until the 

 great works of the Nene outfall in 1829 lowered the head of 

 water about 6 feet at the sill of the sluice, that the low lands were 

 recovered from their unprofitable condition. The lands in South 

 Holland in great wets are not so well drained as they ought to be, 

 and therefore a new sluice is proposed to be erected, having a sill 

 laid 5 feet lower than the present one.* 



There is a tract of land immediately north of the South Hol- 

 land Drain, in Gedney and other parishes, which is badly drained, 

 the water having to traverse a flat and angular course of about 8 

 miles to its outlet by Lutton Team. The district of Great and 

 Little Portsand (commonly called " Postland") — 7450 acres 

 near Crowland — is drained under the authoiity of the North- 

 Level Commissioners, the water being conducted by the South 



* 1&51. This has been already commenced. 



