Farming of Lincolnshire. 



383 



trampling with the flock can give a sohdity to the ground suffi- 

 cient to check its ravages. Young wheats are much blown and 

 destroyed, and the best preventive hitherto is Crosskill's clod- 

 crusher, which astonishingly compresses the soil and improves the 

 crop. The treading of sheep is indispensable to tillage in this 

 district, and though ill adapted for turnip husbandry, the peat 

 brings an enormous bulk of green food in the shape of coleseed 

 (or rape). The mode of cultivating this plant will be treated of 

 under a separate head. Coleseed, wheat, oats, and seeds, are the 

 principal crops ; and the land is manured frequently in conse- 

 quence of its moisture and porosity. Deeping Fen has acquired 

 celebrity for its excellent soil and its enterprising managers. 

 Nearly one-half is sown with wheat, the remainder being cole- 

 seed, clover and grass seeds, and oats. Generally speaking, the 

 various artificial aids are plentifully employed in every department 

 of feeding and manuring, neatness is the order of the farmsteads 

 and fences, great expense is laid out in the cleaning and weeding 

 of the soil and crops, and the total result is a reward of large 

 yields of corn and a quick growth of meat. Travelling north- 

 wards, and passing Thurlby Fen, a deep peat-earth, mostly under 

 grass, which is rarely the case on the peat fens. Bourn Fen, and 

 other districts, where the course of 1. coleseed, 2. oats, 3. wheat, 

 4. seeds, 5. wheat, is usually followed ; the soil becomes partly 

 alluvial and loamy, and a larger breadth of beans are grov/n. 

 Along the peaty tract of the Western Witham Fens, the course is 

 about equally proportioned into a 4, 5, or 6 field system, according 

 to the choice of the occupiers, the latter being 1. coleseed, 

 2. wheat, 3. seeds, 4. wheat, 5. oats, 6. wheat. There is scarcely 

 any old pasture now left in these fens. The average produce is 

 of wheat 4^ qrs., barley 6 qrs,, and oats 8 qrs. per acre. Upon 

 the heavy soils on the opposite side of the river Witham the rota- 

 tion is generally as follows — 1. turnips, 2. barley or oats, 3. seeds, 

 4. oats or beans, 5. wheat. In the East Fen all the peat lands 

 have been clayed, and a large portion several times. Under- 

 draining is being practised to some extent, the pipes being laid 

 in the clay. The courses of cropping are very various, but the 

 best farmers take three-fifths of white corn. Many beasts are 

 wintered with oilcake and straw, and the sheep are grazed on the 

 seeds and fattened on the cole. Large quantities of bones and 

 *' Boston manure," &c., are applied to the land for the production 

 of green crops ; and the district is generally under thriving manage- 

 ment. Its bulky crops and abundant stock are what drainage 

 and culture have substituted for a wilderness of reeds and wild- 

 fowl. The stranger may now find all the various operations of 

 husbandry going on just as in other superior districts ; but before 

 the drainage, cultiva,tion was impossible, and Young mentions 



