362 



Farming of Lincolnshire. 



but on the strong soils experience has decided that their action 

 is uncertain and not remunerative. 



The warp or alluvial land, near Alkborough, is mostly meadow 

 or pasture, and the little that is under the plough is generally 

 cropped with wheat every other year, alternated by beans on a 

 dead fallow. Some of the best land, when fallow, is planted 

 with potatoes — no regular system being observed. Over the larger 

 tract, stretching southward from Burton along the Trent side^ vast 

 quantities of potatoes are grown, contributing largely to supply 

 the London market with Yorkshire " Regent potatoes ; and 

 wheat is produced at the rate of 6 qrs. per acre. The courses 

 of cropping are very irregular, but, as a general rule, wheat is 

 sown every third year, and upon the fresh land every alternate 

 one. The rotations are something like the following : — 



1. Potatoes; 2. Wheat: 3. Oats; 4. Clover; 5. Potatoes; 6. Wheat. 

 1. Potatoes; 2. Potatoes; 3. AVheat ; 4. Clover; 5. Clover; 6. Wheat. 

 1. Potatoes; 2. Wheat; 3. Flax; 4. Clover; 5. Potatoes; 6. Wheat. 



Though many warrens exist upon the blowing sands of this 

 district, and also in various other parts of Lincolnshire, they are 

 not conducted with such system and arrangement as in former 

 times, and are regarded more as a dernier resort for weak land 

 than a profitable mode of husbandry. Their importance is not 

 of sufficient weight to claim a particular notice in a description of 

 Lincolnshire farming, but as an idea of the mode of cultivation 

 which is practised upon them, it may be remarked that, many 

 years ago, when warrens were extensive, it was customary to 

 plough a part every year for corn and turnips. Seeds were then 

 laid down, and the fences broken down for the rabbits to enter. 

 In winter, and during a snow-blast, they were fed with ash- 

 boughs, gorse, oat straw, sainfoin, turnips, and clover hay. A 

 thousand acres of land might be stocked with 2500 couples of 

 rabbits, which, in a storm, must have 2 loads of hay, or 2 or 3 

 large waggon loads of turnips daily. Out of this number about 

 5000 couples might be killed annually; six-score couples being 

 sold for 10/. or upwards; and the town of Brigg had several 

 large establishments where the skins were prepared. The chief 

 sorts were the " silver-hairs" and grey-skins." The principal 

 expenses, besides the production of the food, were the facing and 

 capping of the banks round the warren — these being generally 

 vvorn down in 7 years — and the purchase of traps, nets, and 

 thread, and charcoal for drying the skins. At the present day 

 there are few temptations to a renewal of rabbit-breeding, the 

 localities once famed for these vermin having risen to a more 

 honourable renown by the superiority of their flocks and herds. 

 The remaining warrens,, however, on those places only which bid 

 defiance to the plough and presser, are (as formerly) a horrid 



