328 



Farming of Lincolnshire, 



tiplicity of works, and what a number of skilful appliances, are 

 to be found in the whole extent of marshes and fens in the 

 eastern counties of England ! But Lincolnshire, when taken 

 alone, contains subjects of great interest connected with its low 

 lands, especially its long and firm embankments, its immense 

 excavations of drains and rivers, the great works of its im- 

 proved outfalls, the employment of horses, wind, and steam for 

 drainage, and the formation of new land stolen from the tides. 

 It is a gratifying fact, that, while the men of Lincolnshire have 

 gained renown by their skilful high land management, they 

 have at the same time defended from the sea a tract equal to 

 nearly one-third of all their county : so that, if the banks were to 

 be thrown down, Lincolnshire would be reduced to the figure 

 and dimensions represented by the coloured portion of the map 

 accompanying this Report. It is pleasing also to view the 

 systems of artificial drainage, where the tall smoke-breathing 

 chimney and the massive machinery give an air of manufacturing 

 industry to the labours of agriculture, impressing upon the mind 

 the fact of husbandry being in effect the fabrication of meat 

 and bread from raw inedible materials by the toil and ingenuity 

 of man. 



With regard to the aggregate amount of wind and steam power 

 now in use in Lincolnshire for the purpose of drainage — there 

 will probably be less than 10 wind-engines when the Black 

 Sluice improvements are completed ; at present, in the Witham 

 fifth district and the Black Sluice drainage, there are about 40 

 windmills at work. The precise number of steam-engines has 

 not been ascertained, but the following estimation is near the 

 truth : — 





Locality. 



Number 

 of 



Engines. 



Variation in 

 Power. 



Combined 

 Power. 







Spaldiiif^ and Pinchbeck . 



Witham Fens, &c. .... 



Aucbolme Fiat, Isle of Ax- 

 holme, and low lands east of 

 Trent. 



3 

 1 

 1 

 i 



11 

 18 



10 to 80 horses. 



10 to 40 

 4 to 60 , , 



150 horses. 

 20 

 20 



30 , , 

 270 ,, 

 320 







Total number of Engines 



35 



Aggregate power, 

 « 



810 horses. 





There are upwards of 35 steam-engines^ having an average 

 power of about '22 horses each, draining nearly 80,000 acres of 

 land, and lifting the water from 3 to 12 feet high, on an average 



