332 



Farming of Lincolnshire. 



The two crops upon which the success of chalk farming- de- 

 pends are turnips and seeds; the whole of the former and most 

 part of the latter beings consumed on the land by sheep. The 

 corn crops are wheats oats, and barley. The four-course 

 system of management, — viz., 1. turnips; 2. barley ; 3. seeds ; 

 4. wheat — extensively prevails, but cannot be denominated the 

 "Wold system," as over a great part of the district, and espe- 

 cially adjoining the heavier soil on the eastern slopes, the barley 

 is found to have too strong a straw after turnips, thus injuring 

 the young clover ; and the farmers therefore practise a five-field 

 course of, — 1. turnips; 2. oats; 3. wheat; 4. seeds; 5. wheat: 

 and particularly in the northern parts is an alternating four and 

 :five course rotation, the fifth course arising from grazing seeds 

 two years ; the two together forming a nine-course rotation. The 

 variations from these general methods are many ; among others, 

 when the turnips have been early eaten off, the land is sown with 

 2. wheat, followed by 3. seeds, and 4. oats. Seeds are frequently 

 broken up for barley or oats ; and many farmers plough up their 

 seeds when thin, and sow white m.ustard, this being fed off by 

 sheep, their treacling proving at that time more useful than the 

 same treading on seeds. 



The land for the turnip crop receives three ploughlngs on the 

 stronger soils, but on the lighter parts only one ploughing, and 

 then several scarifyings. There are no lands " or "stetches" 

 upon these hills ; for, independently of the shallowness of the 

 earth, the same dryness and porosity of the subjacent rock, which 

 renders ditches here unnecessary, provides a downward passage for 

 the rain without the aid of either slope or furrow. Accordmgly, 

 the teams often begin their work at one corner of a large field — 

 (one field at Withcali exceeds 300 acres in area), and follow one 

 another round it until by a spiral course they reach the centre. 

 The turnips are sown on the fiat ; when ridged, the bulbs (being 

 wider apart) grow large and coarse without yielding a greater 

 weight per acre; the stock do not thrive so well on them, and 

 they are additionally subject to turn rotten if the winter be severe, 

 Kidging is practised in particular localities where there is a suffi- 

 cient depth and firmness of soil, but the land is generally much 

 too light for the purpose. The principal part of the farmyard 

 manure is usually applied, we believe, to the root crop ; but many 

 farmers, particularly in the northern parts of the Wolds, manure 

 the seeds also ; and some apply all on the seeds — the virtues of 

 the dung being supposed to remain in a dissolved state in the soil 

 during the growth of the wheat crop, ready for forcmg the suc- 

 ceeding turnips, which are sown early in the following season. 

 This manure is made by beasts in the yards, fed on straw and 

 oilcake; the average cost of the linseed-cake being certainly not 



