Farming of Lincolnshire. 



365 



sown a running" crop of beans or seeds. The second class 

 quality produces an intervening crop of beans, barley, oats, 

 clover, flax, turnip-seed, or onions between the w^heat and 

 potato crop, but seldom has a naked fallow. The third class 

 land is managed in a four-course shift, viz., 1 . fallow, part sown 

 with rape or turnips and eaten off, part planted with potatoes, 

 and part naked fallow ; 2. wheat or oats ; 3. clover pastured, 

 seeds, or beans ; 4. wheat or oats. The warp land forms the 

 great potato district in the Isle of Axholme (and an equal extent 

 is annually planted in Marshland, Yorkshire), and the immense 

 extent of land annually set with these roots is apparent from the 

 above rotations, amounting actually to upwards of one-third of 

 the land, the larger farmers often having 250 or 300 acres of 

 potatoes each. Potatoes are generally planted after " line" 

 (flax), beans, or seeds, not after wheat. An extensive grower at 

 Amcotts pursues the following rotations : — 1. fallow ; 2. potatoes; 

 3. wheat; 4. beans; 5. potatoes; 6. wheat; and 1. fallow; 2. 

 potatoes; 3. wheat; 4. oats; 5. seeds; 6. potatoes; 7. wheat. 

 A new method of potato farming is to plant after seeds, and is 

 considered to be the best practice. The tendency of the land is 

 to produce a fine and large ear and beautiful corn, but a weak 

 straw ; so that when bursting into ear the crop falls, and, by being 

 thus early laid, loses a great deal of grain. The mode of culture 

 adverted to in a great measure obviates this. The clover is mown 

 once ; the second growth then comes up, and when in full bloom 

 receives a dressing of yard-manure, and is ploughed in. This is 

 done at half-depth ;" and the land is next deep-ploughed and 

 left for the winter. In spring the rotting clover-stems have made 

 the soil in fine order for receiving the potato sets ; and after this 

 manuring, and the growth of the potatoes, a strong bulky wheat- 

 straw is produced, bearing a remarkably good yield of grain. It 

 is recommended to plant potatoes ichole, and either in November, 

 February, or March, if possible. The manure used for the 

 potatoes is the best horse and cow dung from Hull and London, 

 brought by sea in the vessels which carry the produce to market, 

 and from Leeds and Sheffield by the canals and rivers. Fifteen 

 or 20 tons per acre are commonly applied, costing 7s. per ton ; or 

 occasionally 6 cwt. per acre of the best guano is used, several of 

 the best potato planters expending as much as lOZ. per acre 

 yearly in manuring their respective potato crops. The lands 

 along the Trent side are not all equally well managed, so that 

 soil, naturally of one uniform quality, will appear by its variable 

 crops to be better or worse ; the general farming of the warp 

 land, however, is of the above superior order, so that rich alluvial 

 soil, which nearly everywhere else lacks the high management 



