350 



Farndng of Lincolnshire. 



ventured to ride there without being well acquainted with the 

 ground." It still remains a fact that many of the steeper declivities 

 under pasture possess boggy spots overgrown with rough grass 

 and rushes, and the draining-tool might here prove of great 

 service ; but the general drainage must be considered as remark- 

 ably improved by the great numbers of tiles that have been laid 

 within a few years. 



Fifty years ago the farmers had begun to make use of the 

 white clay (or chalk drift), which is found on hill-tops in the 

 neighbourhood, and of the blue marl which lies in their valleys, 

 to alter and improve the nature of their red sand and clay. The 

 practice has largely increased since that time, and many estates 

 have derived a permanent advantage from it. The white buttery 

 marl gives both strength and solidity to the soil ; and a farmer 

 having applied it to only 2 lands in one of his fields, found that 

 the yield of corn from those lands was fully 2 or 3 coombs per 

 acre greater than from the remainder of the field. The marl is 

 also found to prevent the clubbing " of turnips (or the disease 

 called fingers and toes"), to which this land was subject. The 

 blue marl is beneficial, but in a minor degree. It is common to 

 put on 40 loads per acre ; and one dressing of the white clay is 

 found to be amply sufficient for a great many years, it being 

 questionable whether a second application on the red land is cal- 

 culated to be useful. Some of the most intelligent managers in 

 the district recommend once marling with the white clay, then 

 when the land again grows weak apply 5 chaldrons per acre of 

 lime ; in a few years after that lay on a dressing of the blue marl. 

 Marling, however, is a great expense, and therefore not nearly so 

 many farmers have adopted it as should have done : considerable 

 improvements remain to be effected in this respect. The practice 

 of liming is very general ; indeed the principal manures used are 

 lime, and farm-yard dung enriched with linseed food ; bones do 

 not succeed well upon the red - clay soil. The lime, which 

 lightens the clay lands in the Middle-marsh, gives solidity to these 

 light soils, and also facilitates the decomposition of vegetable sub- 

 stances into fertilizing ingredients. In order to accomplish the 

 latter and other uses in the land it is necessary that the lime 

 should be applied in a quick state. Accordingly it is fetched 

 from the chalk hills (generally several miles distant), and 

 *' hilled for 2 or 3 weeks before used, the heap being covered 

 over with earth. In the process of making the heap, the outside 

 portions '"fall" by the absorption of moisture and carbonic acid 

 from the atmosphere, forming a protective shield above the re- 

 mainder, and, with the assistance of the added covering of soil, 

 preserving the bulk for a long time free from the action of the 

 air. About 5 chaldrons (varying from 4 to 7) per acre is a pro- 



