368 



Farminy of Lincolnshire. 



grass. The course of cropping is the four-field system, viz., 1. 

 turnips; 2. barley or oats; 3. clover and seeds, pastured or 

 mown; 4. wheat or oats. It is upon this light and peaty sand 

 that the warping is chiefly done ; further westward, where the 

 peat becomes deep and spongy, as about Wroot, &c., the course 

 is, 1. turnips; 2. oats or wheat; 3. seeds; 4. wheat or oats, or 

 just the same as on the sand, only substituting oats for wheat 

 and barley. This black peat is beyond the reach of the present 

 warping drains, and it is of such a depth that the clay upon 

 which it rests is not near enough the surface to be useful. In one 

 locality clay from adjoining land has been carried on to it, and 

 the tender bog thus covered over with 5 or 6 inches of good soil. 

 This was done by laying down tram rails of 6-inch timber, with 

 an iron flange upon each of them, the earth- waggons having iron 

 wheels to correspond. The cost of this improvement is lOZ. to 15/. 

 per acre.* The following is a table of the extent and yield of 

 each crop : — 





Acres. 



Crop. 



Acres. 



Produce per Acre. 



Sand and Peat . 



10,655 



Wheat . . 

 Barley . 

 Oats . . 

 Seeds, &c. . 

 Turnips or) 

 Rape. j" 



2000 

 800 

 2527 

 2664 



2664 



24 bushels. 



32 



40 



Rape or coleseed used to be much more widely grown than at 

 present, when the surface now warped was moor, the custom 

 being to pare and burn the seeds for the rape. This crop is 

 eaten off, occasionally grown for seed, and sometimes fed off and 

 then allowed to stand for a crop of seed. The rent varies from 

 106-. to 355. per acre. The number of sheep in the Isle of Ax- 

 holme is but small. About 4500 ewes are kept as breeding 

 stock, and their produce, or 4500 hogs, are annually sold. 

 Besides these, about 4500 sheep are annually bought in, fed, 

 and sold off fat. The wool is estimated to weigh about 4J fleeces 

 to the tod of 28 lbs. About one beast for every 11 acres is the 

 proportion yearly bought in at autumn as store cattle for winter 

 and sold in the spring, a part of them being fattened. A consi- 

 derable quantity of linseed oilcake is used for cattle food, and 

 also of rapecake for dressing the land. Bones and bone-dust 

 are used to some extent for turnips on the high land. Under- 

 draining effects the most useful results upon all the soils; but 



* For an interesting description of this mode of " dry warping," see Journal, 

 v-ol. xi. part i. page 180. 



