Farming of Lincolnshire. 



299 



independent drainage unconnected with any of the larger dis- 

 tricts, it deserves a notice iiere. Many years ago 1000 acres of 

 it (a very large proportion) were allotted to an " Undertaker/' or 

 contractor, for draining the whole^ which was done by cutting 

 several drains and making a culvert underneath the Glen river into 

 Deeping Fen. Though much lower than the water in the em- 

 banked river and Eau, the surface is more elevated than the level 

 of Deeping Fen, having a natural drainage into the same main 

 drain which receives the water from the steam-engines of the 

 latter district. The drain-water is carried from the culvert to 

 Pode-Hole by the Counter-drain, which runs parallel with the 

 Glen, receiving its leakage, and draining the higher land between 

 it and the river bank, besides other lands further west. The 

 drainage of this fen is not so complete as it should be ; and as the 

 soil is a very deep peat, good drainage will necessarily occasion a 

 considerable subsidence of the surface, so that a fall of several 

 feet will yet be required before an adequate natural drainage is 

 obtained. At present, the Pode-Hole engines, when at work, raise 

 the water in the Vernatts drain, so that the counter-drain sluice 

 must be shut to prevent the water from reverting into the fen; a 

 ofreat advantage will therefore be felt when the head of water in 

 the former drain is further lowered by means of the VVelland 

 outfall works. Several hundred acres of the district under con- 

 sideration, named Thurlby Pastures," are "fed" by water from 

 the Glen in the summer : these are the lower grounds, and as 

 breaches of the river bank are not infrequent, it may be readily 

 imagined that the soil is not generally in a sufficiently dry state. 



Immediately west of Pode-Hole, lying between the northern 

 boundary of Deeping Fen and the Glen river, is a district of about 

 1700 acres, called Pinchbeck South Fen, which drains also by 

 the Vernatts drain. The water is raised by a steam-engine of 

 20-horse power, built in 1830, at an expense of about 3000/. ; it 

 is situated a little below the Deeping Fen engines. 



Extending from this district to the reservoir (where the V er- 

 natts drain and the Glen unite with the Welland) on the south- 

 east side of the Glen, is a narrow tract in the parishes of Spalding 

 and Pinchbeck, comprising between 4000 and 5000 acres. 

 Although so near to a great outfall the land was formerly very 

 wet, but an Act being obtained in 1832, a steam-engine of 

 20-horse power was erected, and now lifts the water into the 

 Glen from the Blue Gout drain, which runs through the district. 

 Both the above districts must of course derive considerable benefit 



for about six tniles between Billinghay and Heckington, when it has fens on eacli side. 

 It is still used in one place for the purpose of navigation, and part of it employed as a 

 drain ; but throughout most of its length it is found as a small dilch and bank, though 

 anciently CO feet iu breadth. 



