Farming of LincolnsJdre. 



363 



nuisance to the neighbours' corn, new seeds, turnips, and, above 

 all, to the quicks, which they presently destroy ; and the land 

 presents to the eye a melancholy scene, more of desolation than 

 culture." 



The fields in this district vary from 6 or S acres to 12 or 16 

 acres on the cold land, and from 10 to 50 acres on the sand and 

 limestone ; and in some parts are far too heavily burdened with 

 hedge-row limber, especially on the strong land, whilst large 

 tracts at the same time exist that are well adapted for planting, 

 though nearly useless for any other purpose. Though the pre- 

 sent price of ash and elm limber offers but small inducement to 

 the owner to sell, the welfare of the tenantry imperatively de- 

 mands the removal of trees from the fences, and (as remarked bj 

 an intelligent farmer in the district) '"'points to a period by no 

 means remote, when the toast of ' Rabbits in a warren, trees in a 

 wood,' shall have reference to a reality and not to a nonentity." 

 The same gentleman (to whom the public are indebted for the 

 greater portion of the facts given respectino- this district) re- 

 marks : — 



" There are many piantations on the inferior sands, but they ought to be 

 greatly extended, and would thus beautify the country, admit Oi a clear- 

 ance 01 the present hedgerow trees, and provide an abundant supply of 

 superior timber for future generations, besides doing away with the 

 practice of planting trees in young hedgerows, which is akin to the inocu- 

 lation of a chiid-with the seeds of consumption. It is a general observa- 

 tion that the establishment of a plantation in any locality is the destmction 

 of the occupiers profit on all the surrounding fields : I would observe that 

 it is not an inevitable accompaniment ; and, with the increasing convic- 

 tion on the minds of the landowners of the necessity of paying a regard 

 to the tenants' welfare, wOl soon take its place amongst the hindrances to 

 agricultural prosperit}' which wei-e. The impediments to the improvement 

 of a property where the owner has but a life-interest in it are neither few 

 nor small ; and this neighbourhood furnishes more than one illustration of 

 it. On one estate the Humber is suffered to encroach and carry away 

 acres of first-rate land each year, when a vigorous effort would not only 

 prevent any further loss, but regain hundreds of acres from the dominion 

 of the waters. On another, a narrow parsimony has kept it in a 

 wet state, and prevented any further improvement on the homesteads. 

 Whilst on a third a large tract of inferior land on one side of a village, 

 though capable of improvement, remains a common, pastured by rabbits, 

 witii a few Scots and half-starved sheep : and another piece on the opposite 

 side, of many hundred acres in extent of low moor and sand, several feet 

 lower than high-water mark in the Trent, remains in its primitive barren 

 ness, although abutting on the north and south upon other lands formerly 

 in the same state, but by the process of warping producing the richest 

 crops of wheat, beans, clover, potatoes, and flax. And this land has a 

 large warping drain on its south side, with another equally convenient for 

 the purpose on the north, ready to flood it with the rich muddy water of 

 the river several feet in depth in a single tide." 



Among the wastes yet remaining are Corringham Scroggs, of 

 about 2S00 acres, and Section Common, of nearly 3000 acres ; 



