372 



Farming of Lincolnshire. 



The first step in the process is, to erect a sluice in the bank of 

 the Trent or other tidal channel, and cut a main drain to the 

 fields which are to be flooded. The sluice-doors point outwards 

 so as to exclude the tides, except when held open by rods and 

 staples provided for the purpose; and the drain ought to have an 

 area equal to three times that of the sluice, in order to prevent 

 any considerable resistance to the flow of water. The land is 

 then surrounded by an embankment, of variable altitude accord- 

 ing to the level of the surface, and from 2 to 3 feet wide at the 

 topj the usual slope of the banks being from 15 to 18 inches on 

 each side for every 12 inches perpendicular rise. The tide flows 

 rapidly in, and, meeting with no obstruction to detain its current, 

 holds in suspension the particles of sediment with which it is 

 loaded ; but directly it leaves the narrow channel and spreads 

 itself over the broad surface, the rapidity of motion is lost, and 

 the atoms of warp, no longer projected forward, sink quietly to 

 the bottom. A deposit is thus formed, greatest near the mouth 

 of the drain ; and in order to equalise the amount of warp over 

 the whole ground, the water is conducted to different parts of the 

 compartment by smaller drains called '^inlets." When the de- 

 posit is raised sufficiently high next to the ends of these channels, 

 the current is carried forward by extending the banks of the inlets 

 in different directions; and thus by a skilful and careful guiding 

 of the water the v/hole of the land is warped to an equal height. 

 The water is conducted by a temporary drain, first to the further 

 side of the plot ; and when the deposit there is sufficiently high, 

 is allowed lo escape at intervals along the sides of this drain, 

 until the whole area is equally raised. The tide, having thrown 

 down much of its mud, returns by the warping-drain into the 

 river, scouring out the sediment which might have accumulated 

 in the drain. The water must be allowed to run off so as not 

 to leave too much in the compartment or impede the entrance 

 and passage of the next tide through the dram. In the Isle of 

 Axholme any proprietor, whose land lies adjacent to any of the 



warping had then been known in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, between thirty and forty 

 years, in Italy it had been long practised. Sluices also were invented in that country 

 and the first navigable canals made that were known in Europe, Towards the close of 

 the 17th century, " in the territory of Pisa, the engineer Ciaccheri erected a sluice, 

 under which he made a canal to convey the water of the Arno for the length of two 

 miles to a situation to be warped. This was done in the reign of Cosmo IIL; of 

 Medici.'' This paper, written in 1777, likewise aliirms that the process was then very 

 general, — " all the territory of Valdichia warps, and whatever deficiency may ensue in 

 the produce of their meadows during the warping, yet when it is etTected their crops are 

 so abundant that it makes amends for the loss of the first years and the expense of em- 

 bankments." They had learned to conduct the currents in such a manner as to pre- 

 vent the accumulation of sand-beds, and equalize the depth and quality of the new- 

 made soil. The mud collected was not that of the sea, but the slime borne by the 

 rivers from the uplands, and which formed in time of floods about 3 per cent, of* their 

 whole volume, — from 30 to 40 inches of water depositing 1 inch of warp. 



