Farming of Lincolnshire. 



303 



of heat stolen from the soil in the process of evaporation that it has 

 been estimated every gallon of water prevented from evapo- 

 rating: bv being drained away adds as much to the temperature 

 of the soil as six gallons of boiling water poured into it. 

 Evaporation removes from this district, on an average throughout 

 the year, about 45 gallons per acre in an hour, which, however, 

 is reduced to 18 gallons in the wet months; and if, therefore, 

 'svater is allowed to lie on a fen three days longer than it other- 

 wise would do, there are 1296 gallons more per acre evaporated 

 than there would otherwise be, and an amount of heat lost from 

 the soil equal to that contained in 144 hogsheads of boiling 

 water. The extent of land in the Black-Sluice district suffering 

 under the above disadvantages is probably 30,000 acres, a great 

 part of it being drained by mills, which seriously delay the dis- 

 charge of the water. In order, therefore, to send the waters 

 away rapidly — thus rem.oving a greater quantity, and leaving less 

 time for evaporation — extensive improvements are now in pro- 

 gress; including the amendment of the Old Hammond Beck, 

 the enlarging of the section of the South Forty-foot, and deepen- 

 ing it 7 feet, and the construction of a new sluice at the outfall. 

 The sluice is already completed, having a clear water-way much 

 wider than that of the former one, and a sill 5 feet lower ; and 

 the Forty-foot is at this time (1850) perfected as far inland as 

 Heckington Fen* 



Between South Kyme and Billinghay, extending between Kyme 

 Eau and Billinghay Dales east, and the high lands of Anwick, 

 Digby, &c,, west, is a tract of fen called by the Witham Act the 

 Fifth District. With the exception of an "island" of high 

 ground, stretching from South to ^sorth Kvme, the whole district 

 is under artificial drainage, including South Kyme Low Ground 

 and North Kyme Fen, east of the Car Dyke, and Xorth Kyme 

 L.OW Ground, Anwick, Ruskington, Dorrington, and Digby Fens, 

 west of it. A part of North Kyme Fen drains into the adjacent 

 district, called Billinghay Dales, and the rest is drained by wind- 

 mills into Billinghay Skerth, an ancient river, running north- 

 eastward to the ^Yitham. This main sewer likewise receives the 

 water raised by the mills in the small western fens of this dis- 

 trict, and empties it into the Witham, near Tattershall Ferry- 

 Bridge. 



North of Billinghay, bounded by the Car Dyke and the hills 

 west, and the river Witham east, and reaching from the mouth of 

 Kyme Eau up to Lincoln, is the First District of the Witham 

 Fens. It is about 18 miles in length, and in the southern portion 



* A steam-packet will shortly ply along the whole length of the Fortv-foot, from 

 Boston to Guthram Gote. Navigation and Drainage are not invariably, although fre- 

 quently, at variance. 



