380 



Farming of Lincolnshire, 



The principal requisite here, then, is a complete drainage. The 

 work has been commenced both with tile and stone — the pro- 

 prietor furnisliins: tiles in the first case, or, when the latter 

 material is employed, paying half the expense of cutting out." 

 But underdraining has not been done to a large extent on any 

 of the soils, and the clays, on which it is needed as the very first 

 step towards cultivation, are generally without any underd rains 

 whatever. Here opens a wide scope for improvement : to the laying 

 of adequate drains must be added the breaking of the hard sub- 

 soil by the iron tooth of the sub-pulverizer, a practice, we believe, 

 entirely unknown in this district ; and the land should be sweet- 

 ened and lightened by applying lime, the stone for burning lying 

 so near at hand, but rarely employed for manure. Another 

 glaring defect in the management of this district is, that neither 

 turnips nor artificial food are much used in the yards. Oil-cake 

 is employed in most parts of the county as a substitute for roots 

 drawn off the land, but here there is a general scarcity of either 

 for the cattle in winter. Niggardliness in cattle-feeding is a 

 false economy, and its effects are invariably felt in a diminished 

 yield and a meaner sample ; whereas, with a liberal outlay in the 

 purchase of feeding stuffs for their stock, the farmers in this 

 district might improve the heavy lands and enrich the lisfht, so 

 as to produce far greater crops than those on the weaker Heath- 

 land, which they can now only rival. 



South of Bourn, through Thurlby, &c., and north of Bourn 

 and Edenham, are some extensive pasture lands, generally of good 

 quality, but liable to " burn " in hot summers. The arable 

 land brings good wheat and beans, and is generally well cul- 

 tivated. To the south of Sleaford, through Scredington, Burton- 

 Pedwardine, &c., upon the same clay, is an extensive arable dis- 

 trict, managed upon the system of 4 crops and a dead fallow ; and 

 a considerable proportion of grazing land where both sheep and 

 beasts are bred and fattened. Under tillage the land is difficult 

 to work, and dead fliUowing for wheat is universally practised. 

 Along the edge of the Witham Fens the light sand and gravel are 

 found covering a large portion of the clay, and not more than one- 

 sixth part of the land is under grass. The four-field system, viz., 

 1. turnips, 2. barley, 3. seeds, 4. wheat, is chiefly observed upon 

 the sand, whilst beans and wheat form the principal crops on the 

 clay. Very few swedes are grown, perhaps not more than one- 

 fifteenth of the whole turnip crop : the average produce upon this 

 small quantity may be placed at 18 tons per acre. The principal 

 sorts of turnips grown are the white and purple-top turnips, which 

 yield good food and an abundance of it — thus excelling both in 

 weight and quantity. 



The following scale conveys at a glance the requisite informa- 



