33G 



Farming of Lincolnshire. 



accordin": to tlie season, generally weio:hing from 14 to 16 stones 

 per 4 bushels ; oats, 9 qrs. per acre. Very few oats, however, are 

 there grown for sale. The lands near the H umber often suffer 

 from the dampness of the atmosphere ; and the amount of produce 

 is peculiarly dependent on the seasons. The higher the mode of 

 farming the more variable is the yield. Six quarters per acre of 

 wheat, weighing 18 stones the 4 bushels, have been grown, and 

 on the same land in a humid season, with the same management, 

 only 3 qrs. per acre, v/eighing 14 stones. 



Generally speaking, the Wold lands never had a finer and 

 more favourable wheat-growing season than the year of 1849, the 

 crops being abundant, far beyond the usual average. 



It has been mentioned that the operation of chalking recurs at 

 certain intervals, and that an addition of soil is the result. The 

 chalk also operates in various ways upon the land, and is now 

 chiefly used to act mechanically, making the heavier soils work 

 better, and giving solidity to the light loams ; it prevents the 

 disease in turnips called " fingers and toes," and is also found to 

 kill the weeds. It is customary to cart 60 or 80, and sometimes 

 more than 100, cubic yards per acre upon the seeds, the chalk 

 being filled, carted, and emptied for ^d. per yard, the workmen 

 finding horses. The filling alone costs 2^d. or 3cf. per yard, 

 according to the pit. The chalk lies until it gets enough frost to 

 crumble it, and early in the spring is still further broken by an 

 immense harrow (termed here "the devil"), and then sown with 

 oats. There is no underdraining done except in some of the val- 

 leys, and midway on the dip of the hills, where the land is often 

 wet with springs; and there is but little required. 



The fences are generally neat along the whole line of the 

 Wolds : in the southern parts many are planted upon raised banks, 

 and have been plashed and laid ; but they are usually short quicks, 

 kept closely under the hook. There is very little wood upon the 

 chalk hills, so that the farmers do not suffer much from the 

 nuisance of hedge-row timber; there are, however, some extensive 

 plantations, especially around Lord Yarborough's mansion at 

 Brocklesby, and between that and Caistor. 



Fiftv years ago the average rental of the Wolds was 95. per acre. 

 At the present time it is probably 25s., and over large areas the 

 average is 28^. or 30^. per acre. Many thousands of acres have 

 been improved from the value of 3Z. and lOZ. to that of 30Z. per 

 acre ; and large tracts have been improved within a few years 

 from \Qs. to 30^. per acre rental, — facts which redound to the 

 lasting credit and honour of the tenantry. In the parish of 

 Limber four tenants became bankrupt while renting 4000 acres 

 of land, for which they paid 2s. 6<i. an acre, or 125/. each. The 

 same land is now paying eight or nine times that amount of rent. 



