338 



Farming of Lincohishire. 



stand and act upon the truth, that a man may be a bad tenant and 

 yet grow but little corn, or be a good tenant although raising a 

 great breadth of corn. Where the restrictive system is fully car- 

 ried out, if a piece of seeds or other crop miss, nothing else can 

 be done with it except by asking special permission to break the 

 course laid down in the agreement ; but this order of things is 

 rapidly wearing out, and the larger owners manifest a disposition 

 to assist their tenantry in every reasonable way. " Tenant-right" 

 seems to be a thing better understood in this county than in many 

 others. The usual allowances to outgoing tenants lor unexhausted 

 improvements in North Lincolnshire are much as follows : — Bone- 

 dust and guano are considered to last for 3 years ; marl or chalk, 

 7 years ; lime, 5 years ; clay, on sandy land, 4 years, on some 

 estates 7 years; draining with tiles 7 years, with sods or thorns 

 4 years. The allowances (determined by valuers) are calculated 

 on a scale according to the proportionate time during which the 

 tenant has received benefit from the improvement. Recently it 

 has become customary to allow for oilcake given to the yard 

 stock, on the assumption that the manure is improved to the ex- 

 tent of half the value of the cake consumed. The allowance ex- 

 tends over the last two years, and is two-sixths of the cake used 

 in the last year, and one-sixth of that used in the previous one, 

 making together the half of a year's consumption. Oilcake given 

 to sheep in the field is excluded. 



The next district consists of the Heatli and Cliff, south and 

 north of Lincoln, forming a range of light turnip sod, more than 

 40 miles in length. At the middle of the last century it was 

 covered with heath, fern, and gorse, the only fences being the 

 furze-capped walls of sand that enclosed the warrens ; and Lin- 

 coln Heath was in such a wild and trackless state, that the tall, 

 square column called Dunston Pillar (erected in 1751) was 

 nightly illuminated as a beacon to travellers. In 1/99, Young 

 describes the enclosure as having taken place within twenty years. 

 This refers to a large portion of the district which was thus im- 

 proved from Qs. and 25. or 3.?. per acre to 85. or IO5. rental, 

 growing poor crops of barley and oats. Mr. Chaplin's large 

 estate, formerly a succession of rabbit-warrens, let for 25. 6(i. per 

 acre, was enclosed as lately as the year 1823, the rent bemg 

 now about nine-fold what it was. The whole tract of Heath 

 and Cliff has been brought into tillage, forming a pattern of 

 high farming on inferior land, with hardly any instances of bad 

 management. The present rental of Lincoln Heath averages 

 about 30s. per acre, without tithes, which amount to an average 

 of 65. per acre, in most instances. The soil is all of the same 

 nature, though some parts are rather heavier than others, the 

 heavier land letting at from 25s. to 35s, per acre, and the light at 



